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Reggae musicians perform at Cross Border Skouw Festival in Papua
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The mesmerizing view of Lake Sentani in Jayapura, Papua. (Shutterstock/File)
Jayapura in Papua is hosting a crossborder event named Cross Border Skouw Festival on Oct. 31.
Among the performers at the festival is reggae music group Dave Solution from West Papua.
“Thousands of people came to see Dave Solution during the first concert on Oct. 5. This proves that this [music] group has plenty of fans,” said the ministry's archipelago tourism marketing development deputy, Esthy Reko Astuti.
Meanwhile, the ministry's nature tourism department head Hendry Noviardi said that his team is bringing a reggae musician from Jakarta.
“We are bringing Dhyo Haw, a singer who combines reggae with jazz, rocksteady and pop genres,” said Hendry.
Dhyo Haw is set to perform with saxophonist Rivans at the festival, belting some of his hit songs such as “Tak Mau Digerakkan” (Don’t Want to be Moved), “Cantik Tapi Tak Menarik” (Pretty but not Attractive) and “Kecewa” (Disappointed).
“Reggae group from Papua Nugini called Mixmat Band and Reog Ponorogo are set to perform there as well,” Hendry added.
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According to Tourism Minister Arief Yahya, music is a great tool to promote tourism.
“We learned from our previous experiences of holding crossborder events in Riau Islands, West Kalimantan and East Nusa Tenggara [NTT]. We had Kikan, Slank and Jamrud in Atambua, Wali and Cita Citata in West Kalimantan. All of them managed to attract thousands of visitors,” Arief said.
“Crossborder tourism has a lot of benefits especially in countries that have plenty of border areas. One successful example is the Netherlands that attracted 18 million foreign tourists, of which 13 million were from neighboring countries such as Germany, Belgium and France.
Indonesia also has plenty of border areas such as in Papua, NTT and Kalimantan; it’s very possible for us to adopt the success of the Netherlands,” Arief added.
In Papua, located 300 meters from the Skouw cross-border post (PLBN) is the Skouw market.
“People of Papua Nugini prefer to shop at [Skouw] market that opens on every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday because the price is relatively cheaper,” said Hendry.
Apart from the market, the region also has Baseg and Holtekamp beaches located near Skouw. (kes)
