Numerous events have been held this weekend to celebrate the city's 486th anniversary, which will fall on June 22.

As many as 36 districts across Jakarta provided entertainment to residents on the first day of the first-ever Jakarta Kampung Festival on Saturday.

As the venue, residents of Taman Sari district used a large yard in the grounds of the Jakarta History Museum, West Jakarta, setting up a stage for the performers and a white tent with dozens of chairs for visitors.

 'This is the first time I've attended and I enjoyed the traditional dance performance this morning,' Siti Ayu, a 14-year-old boarding school student told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.  

The festival in Taman Sari offered a Betawi ambiance, as seen in the performances of the traditional orchestra tanjidor, the marawis percussion show, lenggang nyai traditional dance, drama and pencak silat traditional martial arts. A jazz performance at 11 p.m. was scheduled to close the event.

There were no fancy, dazzling shows, but the humble performances on stage attracted the attention of passersby. Entertainers on stage might not be popular celebrities on television, but they were familiar faces among their neighbors.

'These performances are presented by people in the eight subdistricts. They are happy to get the space to express themselves. It's a rare opportunity for them,' Nuryadi, the event coordinator, told the Post, adding that the event was funded by businesspeople in the area.  

He said the event would continue on Sunday with a carnival of some 1,000 residents from the subdistrict at 7:30 a.m., traditional dance and music as well as seven band performances from some Karang Taruna youth groups.

Committee chief Roby Maulana said only 60 percent of district and subdistrict heads in the city had given financial support to the Jakarta Kampung Festival. He said his committee could not reach out to some elite neighborhoods, like Menteng.

 'We've had difficulties raising funds, but we've still been able to carry out the event because of the great participation from the people,' he told the Post over the phone.

In Central Jakarta, the Passer Baroe Festival saw some 30 booths line Jl. Antara and a big stage featuring entertainment, located just outside the entrance to the city's legendary shopping strip. It was still business as usual on the shopping strip on Saturday though, as the festival fanfare did not impact on the shopping area.

Booths next to the big stage offered handicrafts, free health check-ups and Indonesian dishes such as siomay (dumpling), pecel (vegetables salad), soto Lamongan (Lamongan style aromatic chicken soup) and gudeg (jackfruit cooked in coconut milk).

Sumarni, a resident of Cililitan in Kramat Jati, East Jakarta, proudly showed a T-shirt she won at the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) booth after she managed to answer a random question about Jakarta.

She took her family and children to the event to learn about Betawi cuisine, but to her dismay, the Betawi dishes were limited to kerak telor (egg crust) and dodol Betawi (glutinous rice cake).

'We were looking for the traditional Betawi beverage bir pletok, but we couldn't find it here,' she told the Post.

The three-day festival, which aims to attract 10,000 visitors, will run from 1 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The last day of the festival will feature a drawing competition for children and traditional art performances such as angklung (bamboo musical instrument) and a gamelan orchestra. It will be closed with a costume play (cosplay) competition.  

Meanwhile, residents of Bukit Duri and Kampung Pulo in East Jakarta celebrated the city's anniversary with a pasar rakyat (community bazaar), be held along Jl. Bukit Duri on Saturday and Sunday.

The bazaar features musical, theater and dance performances as well as cooking and beauty pageant competitions. It will also educate visitors with film screenings, a discussion and a workshop.

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