[Continue from Part 1 of the Rainforest World Music Festival post]

The Rainforest World Music Festival was held from 10 am to 12 midnights for the 3 consecutive days.  A total of 21 bands are lined up for the festival.  The event uses the formula of afternoon informative workshops, ethno-musical lectures, jamming sessions and mini concerts, which precedes the evening performances on the main stage. We also did attend the press conferences, where all the performers gave an introduction about themselves and also the music their playing.

Representative of Nunukul Yuggera from Australia

Song Lee from Palsandae group of Korea

Juk Wan Emang from Sarawak, playing the nose pipe during the press conference

For me, the main highlights of the event was the workshop. This is where visitors can learn about the music and dances from the performers. The performers also introduced a vast collection of music instruments which many of them are rarely to be found. Among the workshops that I attended during the event were :

The Bandari Dance by Mohsen Sharifian and the Lian Band from Iran.

Strings Instruments of the sub-saharan Africa by Ibuyambo Esemble from Africa

Percussion Workshop by performers from various countries

Call of the Ceili, the Irish dance workshop by KILA band from Ireland

Blowpipes in Borneo by performers from various countries

The workshop was really a crowd puller. Many visitors which I talked to were impress with the workshop and they really had a great time.

 Evening performances

The evening performances started at 7.30pm until 12.30 throughout the 3 days. The stage was divided into 2, which was the Jungle stage and the Tree stage. All 13 international and 8 Malaysian bands take turns to perform on the two stages.

We watched the performance for 2 straight nights. Luckily we were given the photographer pass which allows us to be inside the photographer pit. Here are some shots of the performers.

Malaysian team, The Rhythm of Bronze

Chet Nuneta from France

Colombia’s band, Rey Vellonato Beto Jamaica

Alp Bora from Austria

Nunukul Yuggera from Australia

Habadekuk group from Denmark

Palsandae Performing Arts group from South Korea

We left the event on the final day. We managed to make a short stop in Kuching city before taking our Air Asia flight back to Kuala Lumpur. Overall it was a great atmosphere, great music and great experience. We enjoyed our experience at the Rainforest World Music Festival 2013. I’m definitely gonna come back next year! Thank you again Air Asia and Sarawak Tourism Board for flying us to the event!