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Semarang goes old school with Old Town Festival 2017
This two-day event will run for the sixth time in Semarang from September 23 to 24 at Old Town Retensi Tawang area. This year, the theme is Sepanjang Jalan Kenangan (Down the Memory Lane).
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A bicycle passes one of the colonial buildings in Kota Lama, Semarang. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)
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hose who are longing for cuisine from the past such as Mini Socijsbrood, Amandel en bitterballen or Oma Oen’s tomato soup, also known as Heldere tomatensoep met balletjes should definitely come to Old Town Festival 2017 in Semarang,
This two-day event will run for the sixth time in Semarang from September 23 to 24 at Old Town Retensi Tawang area. This year, the theme is Sepanjang Jalan Kenangan (Down the Memory Lane).
The event is created by the city administrations together with Oen’s Semarang Foundation (OSF), AMBO as the stakeholder of Old Town, Vrienden Van Kota Lama, Indonesian expats in the Netherlands, local communities and residents.
The entrance ticket is priced at Rp. 200,000 per person ($15.10).
Read also: The return of Semarang’s Old Town
The entry fee is certainly worth the experience as the festival will spoil visitors with old-school delicacies such as garnalensalade-cocktail (shrimp salad cocktail), kip met champignonsaus, aardappels en groenten (chicken steak with champignon sauce and served with French fries and vegetables) and Toko Oen’s legendary menu namely fried rice, tutti-frutti ice cream, met vruchten en kruimels, koffie and thee met koekjes.
The festival’s main event is the gala dinner that will also serve as the opening event of the festivities.
“The second day is a car-free day at Old Town, there will be performances of aerobic, zumba and line dances at the closing ceremony,” said Semarang tourism department head, Partono.
Prior to that, there will be a talk show with the topic 'Old Town and Us' at 3 p.m. in Samudra Indonesia building, featuring Indonesian Charm Generation (GenPI) Semarang chapter, Semarang Instagram community and Explore Semarang. The talk show is free of charge.
Read also: A guide to visiting Semarang
By the time the clock hits 7 p.m. there will be a fashion show and dance on the street performance by House of Pinky and LPTB Susan Budihardjo who will perform a collaboration of Dutch and Javanese dances before guests from the Netherlands.
Old Town Festival also offers other interesting activities such as Old Town walking tour, photo rally and Instagram competition.
Tourism minister Arief Yahya said he is very happy with Semarang which is starting to host plenty of creative events to attract tourists.
“This is really great, Semarang is already included in the ‘tentative list’ by the UNESCO, this list consists of nominees that have the potential to become a World Heritage. Through creative events, Semarang will catch the world’s attention,” Arief said. (asw)
