T

housands of people gathered earlier this week in Jatiwangi district, Majalengka regency, West Java, to play various musical instruments made of clay in a joint effort to promote local art and culture as well as the region'€™s ceramic industry.

On Wednesday, at least 6,000 people beat, banged or blew various ceramic instruments during the 2015 Ceramic Music Festival, which took place in the yard of the now-defunct Jatiwangi sugar mill.

Jatiwangi art Factory (JaF) founder Arief Yudi, whose organization manages the festival, said this year'€™s event was the second of its kind and had attracted huge support from local residents.

'€œThe number of participants during this year'€™s event is much higher compared to that of our maiden event,'€ he said.

The festival, according to Arief, stems from local people'€™s management of clay resources in Majalengka and particularly Jatiwangi, located some 200 kilometers southeast of Jakarta.

For the past several decades, most people in Jatiwangi, for example, only knew how to use the abundant clay supplies in the region to make roof tiles, Arief added.

'€œThe festival is aimed at reminding people that we actually have a clay management system that we must preserve,'€ he said.

This year'€™s festival, which was held under the theme of '€œThe Year of the Earth'€, was also expected to campaign against excessive exploitation of natural resources, according to former Jatisura subdistrict chief Ginggi S. Hasyim, who has been involved in developing JaF for the past decade.

'€œUp till now, the local community still regards the earth simply as land and not as a material. With this festival, we are hoping to see people also explore the earth as land, material and ideas,'€ he said.

The participants in Wednesday'€™s event consisted of people from various backgrounds, including students, teachers, civil servants and police personnel.

The highlight of the festival was marked by lively clatter of tiles played by elementary to high school students. In addition, they also brought bowls that produced a very different sound.

Through the Jatiwangi art Factory creation, clay, which is the raw material for roof tiles can also be shown to be used to make a percussion instrument, by forming clay into a pot and covering the top with a rubber sheet, which when beaten, gives out a sound like a bass drum.

There was also the ocarina, a wind instrument made of clay with five holes. One hole is used for blowing into while the four other holes are opened and closed to produce diatonic sounds. Another example was a funnel-shaped wind instrument.

When the player blew through a hole, he opened and closed the bottom hole with the palm of the hand. The sound emitted fleetingly sounded like a dog'€™s bark.

The organizer of the festival also asked participants to jointly read the so-called Jatiwangi pledge, which expressed their appreciation for the work of their predecessors.

'€œWe will preserve the culture, manage the earth in a more creative and dignified manner and respect the environmental norms,'€ vowed JaF ceramic music director Ahmad Tian Fulthan, followed by all the participants.

West Java Deputy Governor Deddy Mizwar, who participated in the event, also applauded the festival.

'€œNot all regions have a unique appeal like Jatiwangi. I hope this [event] can be continuously developed so that the local community will be able to achieve added value in the creative economy from existing clay resources,'€ he said.