Thousands of colorful umbrellas of various styles and sizes adorned Taman Balekambang, the city park of Surakarta, Central Java, for three days starting on Sept. 11.

Around its entrance, hundreds of umbrellas hung in rows for about 100 meters into the park. The song '€œPayung Fantasi'€ (Fantasy Umbrellas) by famous composer Ismail Marzuki welcomed incoming visitors.

Umbrellas were also found in all corners of the park in the form of art installations, marking the second Umbrella Festival this year, under the theme of '€œUmbrellas Reborn in Visual Art'€ in a bid to preserve traditional umbrella craftsmanship that enjoyed its heyday decades ago.

From 1950 through the 1960s, Juwiring district, Klaten regency, Central Java, and Tasikmalaya regency, West Java, were Indonesia'€™s two largest industrial centers of traditional umbrella production. They were known as '€œfantasy umbrellas'€, a reference to their beauty, thus serving more as a decorative adornment than as shelter from the heat and rain.

During their golden period, the two centers were each capable of producing around 40,000 traditional umbrellas monthly, created by around 400 to 600 craftspeople from the surrounding areas.

However, the traditional industries were overwhelmed by the import of waterproof fabric umbrellas from China. Since then, both umbrella centers have been in a state of decline. For over 50 years, the Chinese products have been followed by those of Japan, Korea and Spain to seize the traditional umbrella market.

'€œThrough this festival, these traditional umbrella home industries will hopefully be revived, perhaps not as a means of protection from the heat or rain but as handicrafts and souvenirs at tourist destinations,'€ acting Surakarta Mayor Budi Suharto said at the opening of the event.

Apart from Juwiring and Tasikmalaya, festival participants also came from various regions where traditional umbrellas were once produced such as Palu, Bau Bau, Padangpanjang, Riau, Bengkulu, Jakarta, Bandung, Pekalongan, Malang, Bali and Yogyakarta.

Three countries, China, Japan and Thailand, also joined the festival to exhibit their products and organized umbrella-making workshops. On the opening day, they even presented umbrella dances along with other regions and studios like Kuantan Singingi (Riau), Sanggar Metabudaya (Surakarta), Kembang Lawu (Karanganyar) and Tasikmalaya.

On the second and third days workshops were held by umbrella handicraft groups, including Chen Min, an umbrella craftsman from China, who demonstrated how bamboo umbrellas could be made purely as souvenirs, decorations or stage props, shaped only in paperless frames with colorful yarn.

'€œIn China, umbrellas have been used since 500 years ago. But today many artists have experimented through modifications like this bamboo frame umbrella, which belongs to the traditional category yet has already been modified to suit the taste of young people,'€ said Chen Min.

Regional umbrella craftsmen came from Kalibagor village, Banyumas, Juwiring village, Bali and Tasikmalaya. Sadly, the workshops were not filled with participants, with only a dozen students previously arranged by the committee to attend the workshops.

As a result, some workshops could not be carried out despite the festive mood created by the numerous umbrellas enlivening Balekambang, while many visitors took the opportunity to take selfies with the decorations without any direct involvement.

In fact, said Budi Suharto, the festival should be able to invigorate tourism and creative industries. In his view, it could also initiate tourism cooperation between Indonesia and China, which has preserved the umbrella tradition for centuries.

China holds an annual umbrella dance festival, usually in April, which involves over 10,000 participants. According to Chen Min, community groups in China have joined the dance festival on a self-support and voluntary basis to liven up the occasion.

'€œWearing unique costumes and carrying their umbrella creations, they gather at the city park to perform mass umbrella dances. This can happen because umbrella making has become a long-standing tradition. Indonesia will later also be able to do so,'€ assured Chen Min.

Chen Min added that the umbrella festival in China had always been a magnet for foreign tourists, with their number continuing to increase from year to year to watch the event.

Besides China, a major umbrella festival called AgitAgueda is also organized for a whole month in Agueda city, Portugal. In July, when the festival takes place, hundreds of thousands of multicolored umbrellas are suspended over main roads, public spaces and other corners of the city.

The umbrellas are arranged to create a unique atmosphere, along with various attractions such as umbrella dances, acrobatics and mass painting on weekends.

Tourists are also taken round to visit umbrella production centers during the month-long festival. Unsurprisingly, the umbrella celebrations in China and Portugal pull many global tourists.

Interestingly, the hundreds of thousands of umbrellas boasted by the two festivals are fully left to local umbrella industry to produce, so that their businesses can also share the benefits of the gala shows.

'€” Photos by Ganug Nugroho Adi

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