Don’t miss Indonesia’s arts event of the year

WORDS ANGUS STRACHAN

the Balinese welcome dance
Photo: Shutterstock/Miroslav

“Condong” - a character in
the Balinese Dance Opera,
Arja
Photo: Angus Strachan This month, the annual Bali Arts Festival hits Denpasar once again. The cultural highlight of the year in Bali – some say in Indonesia – the festival is a colourful month-long celebration of Balinese dance, music, art, craft and food. This year it’s marking its 29th year with the theme Sura Dira Jayeng Rat, which translates roughly as “a celebration of the noble hero within each of us”.

Festivities kick off on June 16 with a spectacular grand opening ceremony: thousands of locals will be lining the streets for the opening parade to cheer on the floats, vibrant gamelans (traditional orchestras), dance troupes in Balinese costume and giant ogoh-ogoh dolls. Don’t forget your camera, and come prepared to dance and sing with the rest of the crowd.

Rindik Gamelan
Orchestra
Photo: Angus Strachan

The festival’s a great opportunity to catch all of Bali’s cultures in one place: in keeping with the Balinese policy of pariwisata budaya (cultural tourism), one of its aims is to promote the island’s lesser-known areas. Each region will be presenting its own unique art form during the month: there’ll be intricate double-weaving from Sidemen; trance dances from the remote mountain slopes; the bamboo jegog gamelan of west Bali; and the genyek singing of the east, just to name a few. Many villages are also competing to show off their interpretations of elegant classical Balinese dances like the legong, gambuh, kecak, barong and baris. And if that’s not enough, 12 international companies from Singapore, India, China, Japan, Malaysia and the US are performing as well.

Ogoh-ogoh doll
Photo: Shutterstock/
Aerden OoThe Balinese particularly love to watch the big kreasi baru – new dance-drama spectacles put on by high schools and the College of Performing Arts – and the kebyar gamelan competition, where two orchestras compete against each other on the same stage. It’s an intoxicating and very noisy event, where spectators yell and hoot and cheer on their favourites.

If you’d like to see the very best of Balinese art, go to the Old Masters’ night, which honours performers who have devoted their life to an art form: it usually culminates with performances from the masters themselves. Other must-sees include the costume- and offering-making competitions and the pop and karaoke sing-offs in the Ksiranawa Theater. And don’t miss the “operatic” stand-up comedy shows. This is Chaplinesque slapstick at its best, and the Balinese do literally fall down laughing! It’s sometimes hard to know which is the best show: what’s on stage or what’s going on in the audience.

It’s a unique and sumptuous feast for the senses, the Balinese produce it on a shoestring – and it’s good for your noble soul. So go on, go! We promise you’ll be talking about it for months to come. Visit www.baliartsfestival.com for the full program.

TRAVEL TIPS

Most events are held at the Taman Werdi Budaya (Art Center) in Denpasar, which has a 6,000-seat amphitheatre, open-air stages and a traditional wantilan theatre. For the bigger events, be early in order to get a decent seat: just keep an eye on the festival website, as times can change. Food stalls and restaurants are everywhere, so don’t worry about packing a picnic! During the day, a hat or sun umbrella will come in handy, though, and at evening shows you won’t regret taking mosquito spray. Most performances are free, but tickets are available for the larger performances on site.