The lights went off in cities and towns across the world on Saturday for the annual Earth Hour to promote environmental projects.

However, a heavy downpour marked the one-hour power switch-off at the Central Park shopping center in Grogol, West Jakarta.

The rain fell as dozens of Acehnese dancers began performing a saman dance precisely at 8:30 p.m., when the shopping mall, the nearby Pullman Hotel and the park where the ceremony was held switched off the power. Organizers from the World Wild Fund (WWF) and Central Park suspended the ceremony during the storm, although lights were kept off until 9:30 p.m.

Lights inside the mall remained on for security. Despite the downpour, hundreds of shoppers and passersby stayed on in the park.

Several visitors said that they were disappointed when the Acehnese dance was postponed.

Nadira, 18, said that she came to the mall to celebrate World Earth Day and witness Earth Hour. '€œLast year I just switched off the lamps in my house. So this year I want to celebrate it differently.'€

Another girl in the crowd, Ingrid, 17, said that she learned about the performances from Twitter and came just to watch the bands. '€œI didn'€™t know about the Earth Hour until I arrived here,'€ she said.

The Jakarta government supported the event by switching off the lights for five iconic locations in the capital: City Hall, the National Monument (Monas), the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle, the Arjuna Wiwaha fountain and statue on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat and the Youth Statue at the Senayan traffic circle.

Many on the grounds of Monas said that they were not aware of Earth Hour and were plunged into confusion when lights at the monument were extinguished.

'€œI brought my family to Monas, but after experiencing the dark night, we moved and went to Kota Tua [Old Town],'€ said Riki, a visitor, as quoted by kompas.com.

Meanwhile, Surya, a street vendor, attributed the sudden darkness at Monas to a surprise raid launched by Jakarta Governor Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo against him and his peers.

Thirty-seven cities across the archipelago participated in the event, from Lhokseumawe in the nation'€™s west to Ambon and Palu in its east, according to the WWF.

Sydney'€™s Opera House and Harbour Bridge were also darkened, among the first landmarks around the world to dim their lights for the event, AFP reported.

Earth Hour began in 2007 in Sydney, but the idea quickly spread around the world and hundreds of millions of people are estimated to have turned their lights off for the event last year.

The lights also went out across the Marina Bay skyline on Saturday evening, allowing Singapore to see the stars '€” of more kinds than one, The Straits Times reported. Amazing Spider-Man 2 cast members Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone and Jamie Foxx were on hand at The Float@Marina Bay to lead the switch-off to mark Earth Hour in the Lion City.

Among the other landmarks in 7,000 other cities and towns scheduled to participate are the Bell Tower of Xi'€™an in China, the Kremlin in Russia, the Bosphorus Bridge between Europe and Asia in Turkey; the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, Edinburgh Castle in Scotland and the Empire State Building in New York City, according to AFP. (nai/kha)

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