T

he annual Lake Toba Festival in Toba Samosir regency, which will be held from Sept. 17 to 21 will feature not only various arts and cultural events but also a number of sports activities.

Liberty Pasaribu, the deputy regent of Toba Samosir regency, which is co-hosting the festival along with North Sumatra province and the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry, said the committee was ready to put on one of the biggest fanfares in the province.

'€œThe festival'€™s activities will be centered in four venues. They are the TB Silalahi Center, Sisingamangaraja Square, the Del School and Lake Toba Pier,'€ he said recently.

Pasaribu said the festival would boast arts and cultural performances, the Toba Samosir Trail Adventure Motor Offroad event, traditional games, parasailing and a 10-km swimming race.

The visitors can also join, among other things, a photography competition, choir and solo singing contests and a bird-chirping contest. They can also indulge in the local delicacies at the culinary fair and check out the latest local products in the creative economy exhibition,

North Sumatra Tourism Agency head E. Marbun said organizers would receive a 500-meter North Sumatra traditional woven cloth, ulos sadum, from Bank Indonesia which would be recorded by the Indonesian Museum of Records (MURI).

Ulos have long been part of the ritual events of the Batak people of the region. Ulos sadum, for instance, are mostly used as gifts to greet kings or special guests. '€œThe MURI recording of the ulos sadum will be held at the TB Silalahi Center in Balige. The ulos will then be brought to Sisingamangaraja Square,'€ said Marbun, adding that the event would be accompanied by a colossal tor-tor dance performed by 300 students.

The festival is expected to boost tourism, especially by foreign visitors. North Sumatra Governor Gatot Pujo Nugroho said the event was very important for the province because it would promote cultural and natural tourist destinations in the Lake Toba area.

He said the festival had proven to have had a significant contribution in attracting tourists to the province.

Data from the North Sumatra chapter of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reveals that the number of foreign tourist arrivals has been rising over the past five years. During the first half of this year alone, the number of foreign tourists reached 149,356 people.

In 2009, the number of foreign tourist arrivals in North Sumatra stood at 163,159 and jumped to 191,466 in the following year. In 2011, the number rose to 223,126 and further increased to 241,833 in 2012. Last year, 259,299 foreign tourists visited the province.

Gatot said the foreign tourists visiting Lake Toba came mainly from Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, the Netherlands, China, Thailand, the United States, Germany, Great Britain and Taiwan.

He added that the festival had become part of the annual calendar of events of the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry. The festival is held in turns by regency administrations located in the Lake Toba area.

The festival was previously called the Lake Toba Party and was organized only by the Toba Samosir regency. The new name of Lake Toba Festival was unveiled last year.