T

he Nagekeo regency administration in Flores, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), organized its first traditional bamboo music festival in the middle of August in a bid to promote tourism in the region.

The festival, which highlighted local skills and talent in playing bamboo music, was also aimed at preserving the musical tradition in the face of popular modern music.

The two-day festival, which took place on Aug. 11-12, presented 13 bamboo-music workshops, in which the musical style was enthusiastically played and promoted.

'€œAs the new regent, I aim to promote the potential here for tourism over the next five years, to generate income for the regency,'€ Nagekeo Regent Elias Djoe told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday in the regency capital of Mbay.

Nagekeo natives are well known for their bamboo-music performances, which are staged in villages during traditional rituals. Over time, however, the music'€™s popularity among young people has begun to diminish. Nagekeo'€™s famous flute music, for example, is no longer played by both the elderly and schoolchildren during rituals nowadays.

Elias said he wanted to revive and promote Nagekeo'€™s unique cultural heritage, despite the regency'€™s li-mited budget.

He said bamboo music used to be very popular in Nagekeo, explaining that elderly people who still played the music at customary rituals would be encouraged to preserve and pass on their knowledge through various activities, including the festival, which he said would be held annually.

According to Elias, the most popular bamboo music in the regency was ndoto music. The word ndoto in the Central Keo language means '€œbamboo'€. A performance of ndoto music from Wajo village, Nagekeo, won first prize during last year'€™s East Nusa Tenggara music festival, he said.

He added that bamboo music could be developed in schools, music workshops and across villages to help to ensure its survival. This in turn could help to generate funds, depending on different levels of ability, with support from the administration.

Separately, Nagekeo Tourism and Culture Agency head Ndona Andreas Corsini said the bamboo music from Wajo had inspired his office to organize the festival. The agency invited a number of musicians to participate in the event.

Ndona said that although bamboo music was played and performed in villages, such players rarely had the chance to shine at the regency level.

'€œThat'€™s why prior to the Aug. 17 [Independence Day] celebrations, we organized the bamboo music festival '€” the first of its kind in Nagekeo regency or NTT province,'€ he told the Post.

He expressed his satisfaction about the enthusiasm generated in the 13 workshops at the festival.

'€œWe are ready to conduct the festival every year and to include it in our calender of events,'€ Ndona said.