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President to officially open Bali Arts Festival

President Susilo Bambang Yudho-yono is slated to open the 35th Bali Arts Festival on June 15 in Denpasar

Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post)
Denpasar
Sat, June 8, 2013

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President to officially open Bali Arts Festival

P

resident Susilo Bambang Yudho-yono is slated to open the 35th Bali Arts Festival on June 15 in Denpasar. Yudhoyono is set to attend both the street parade at Bajra Sandhi monument in Renon in the afternoon, as well as the opening ceremony at the Werddhi Budaya Arts Center in the evening.

The street parade will feature traditional Balinese cultural attractions from across Bali, as well as from the other provinces in Indonesia. Thousands of artists will participate in the parade that starts at 2 p.m. local time. The parade will commence on Jl. Muhammad Yamin and go along a 1-kilometer route to Jl. Raya Puputan Renon, passing the VIP stage, where Yudhoyono and scores of high-ranking officials will be seated.

Yudhoyono will mark the start of the street parade by hitting a gong from the Gong Beri traditional ensemble.

The opening ceremony is scheduled to take place at Ardha Candra, the main open stage at the Werddhi Budaya Art Center and will feature a collaborative drama and dance piece Garuda Digjaya Mahambhara (The powerful Garuda, master of the sky) performed by students and lecturers from Denpasar'€™s Indonesia Arts Institute. At the ceremony, Yudhoyono will officially open the month-long arts festival by striking ketungan, a wooden mortar used to pound rice.

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said that this year'€™s arts festival would be special as it would be going on at the same time as the World Hindu Summit, an international event where around 500 Hindu leaders from all around the world discuss contemporary issues in relation to the development of one of the world'€™s oldest belief system. The summit will take place at the Ksirarnawa building in the Arts Center complex. It is expected that the summit will result in the declaration of World Hindu Parisad and World Hindu Center.

'€œI am confident that the Bali Arts Festival will echo all over the world, as the World Hindu Summit will declare its World Hindu Parisad and World Hindu Center during the event,'€ he said,

Pastika, however, also reminded that the annual event should be managed in a professional manner.

The Bali Arts Festival is slated to be held June 15-July 13 this year. More than 340 arts performances will be staged by around 15,000 artists during the annual fiesta, with shows taking place every day at several venues within the Bali Arts Center in Denpasar. The Bali administration has allocated a special budget of Rp 5 billion from its 2012 annual budget for the festival.

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