T

he British Council Indonesia is holding its three-day “Best of UK Festival” in Jakarta to celebrate the United Kingdom’s (UK) culture and higher education.

The festival will bring together UK alumni in Indonesia to share their personal experiences of studying and living in the country with the audience to inspire them to go and study in the UK.

“This sort of festival will showcase partnerships between Indonesia and the UK, as well as the opportunities that exist for all Indonesians to connect with the UK,” British Council country director for Indonesia Keith Davies said on Wednesday during the festival’s launch at the British Ambassador’s residence.

Keith added that the festival would give an opportunity to Indonesians and British people to learn about each other.

“We think that the UK and its people don’t know Indonesia and its people as well as they should, and vice versa. We think that Indonesians perhaps don’t realize how rich the UK’s life and culture is. And the same is true in the UK because the people don’t know enough about Indonesia. They know about Malaysia better because it was a former colony. So we are trying to raise the level of awareness and interest in both Indonesia and the UK,” he said.

Jeremy Browne, the UK’s foreign minister, said that the festival was a way to strengthen relations between Indonesia and the UK through boosting the people-to-people relationships that underpin all perceptions about politics and business.

“It’s not all about the government. The government can help, but it can’t make the country culturally interesting or sportingly worth watching. But, the government can help support enabling creative people to get on being creating and innovative and doing interesting things. And if they can do that on a person-to-person basis, it will have a strong impact on a rapidly developing country like Indonesia. All of our political and business links with Indonesia can be built on the foundation of these people-to-people relationships,” he said.

The Best of UK Festival started on Friday at the Kuningan Epicentrum in South Jakarta. This year’s iteration will feature a live performance by pioneering collective multimedia artists The Light Surgeons, which will explore the landscape and architecture of London through a combination of live video remixes and an electronic score. (msa)