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cultural mixture of Sundanese angklung (bamboo musical instrument) ensemble and Korean “Gangnam Style” dance performances by street artists marked the opening of the 2012 Urban Festival in Ancol Bay City in North Jakarta on Saturday.

Dozens of communities, including BMX riders, photographers, street painters and street soccer players, enlivened the annual event, organized for the sixth time.

The host, city-owned PT Pembangunan Jaya, the operator of Ancol, said that this year’s event theme: “Save the Urban Youth”, aimed to give the young generation a space to show off their talent in a positive manner.

“They are part of urban life, but are often overlooked or even neglected. Youths have a high sense of creativity, but we sometimes don’t realize this,” the operator’s president director, Budi Karya Sumadi, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

“Hence, the organizing committee aims to give a space to these creative youngsters to present what they have.”

As many as 66,000 people visited the event in 2010 and 68,000 in the following year. Budi said that the committee hoped to have at least 80,000 people visiting the festival this year, which was conducted on Nov. 24-25.

Budi said that the theme was related to the committee’s purposes to save the city’s street youths. The event was a collaboration between by Ancol, Kompas daily and Prambors Radio.

One of the main attractions at the event was the Taring Babi punk community, which presented their sculpture, screen printing and trash recycling activities.

“People are usually afraid of a community like them and they say negative things about them. But eventually we can see that the punk community has something valuable that they can share with us,”
Budi said.

Iwang, 38, a senior in the Taring Babi community, thanked the committee for the opportunity, saying that he hoped that society could understand how his community could also serve to become a source of inspiration. “We want to show society that we can do something good too,” Iwang said.

The community also opened a free workshop for sculpturing and trash recycling.

The event also presented local bands as well as foreign musicians such as alternative music band CupidFalls from Australia. The band was performing for the second time at the Urban Festival.

“We have always had a great time in Jakarta, the people and their hospitality. Jakarta mantap lah [awesome],” said CupidFalls frontman Ryan Botha.

Budi said the Indonesian youth was the country’s big hope in bringing a change in the condition of society.

Although various kinds of activities were mixed together, Budi said that the spirit of creativity and a willingness to develop from all the participants had made them all combine well.

President director for Prambors Radio, Imansyah, said that communal activities among Indonesian youths had changed a lot of things in their mind-set.

“Young people nowadays not only develop creatively in the arts, but also in terms of their awareness of building a community to do something positive for society and make it a trend, which is part of their identity and lifestyle,” he said.

“Prambors will try to be consistent in providing a space for the young generation to express what they have.” (fzm)