The Rainforest World Music Festival 2017 at Sarawak Cultural Village Kuching

Name: The 20th Anniversary Rainforest World Music Festival 2017

Date: 14th July 2017 (Friday) to 16th July 2017 (sunday)

Venue: Sarawak Cultural Village, Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Organizer: Sarawak Tourism Board

Official Website: https://rwmf.net/

Latitude : 1.7492316

Longitude : 110.31646019999994

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The Rainforest World Music Festival is like no other Music Festival. It is a common stage for union of variety renowned world musicians from around the world, with focus on indigenous cultural exchange and exposure through exhibition and music performance. Performance stage, Demonstration Stations, Hands-on Workshops, Cultural Merchandise and Ornaments, Cultural Food and Drinks and many more excitements awaits.

Every year the stage sets foot on the Living Museum of Sarawak Cultural Village, and nevertheless this is the 20th Anniversary of this festival. Tourist and visitors can indulge in the unique Rainforest themed environment in this well preserved and staged Museum with lush greeneries and wooden cultural houses.

Nevertheless, Sarawak Cultural Village located at Damai Peninsular, which is a prime tourist destination around 40 minutes of driving from Kuching City. Around the Living Museum, there are three beach resorts, a 18-hole golf course, a boutique hideaway and a few homestay operators for your accommodation needs, not to forget the Gunung (Mt.) Santubong National Park is also part of the complex.

This time we manage to visit the 2nd day of the event. The event start at around 11am, and many had arrived here early to have a good parking nearby. However due to limitation of the Parking around the site, Visitors had to park around 5 minutes away at the allocated parking along the roadside to the Golf Course. A Shuttle bus service is provided by Bus Asia.

At the Front entrance to the Sarawak Cultural Village, Visitors and Tourist line up to enter the grand doorway. Thousands had their ticket prebooked online, curtoursy of TicketCharge company who implement a bar code scanning system to ensure legit entry to the event. There was also on the spot ticket counter for those who not yet have a ticket for the event. The Door-Sales ticket is RM152.40 for 1Day pass for an adult and RM78.20 for children. For those who wish for a three day event entry would have a discounted 3Day pass for RM406.80 for adult and RM184.20 for children.

After the ticket checked and validated, visitors will be given a water proof plastic bracelet to indicate a valid entry for that day. The security is strict and bags will be checked by the security after the entry to prevent illegal items to be brought in.

Within the Cultural Village, there is a wooden path strategically connecting all the attractions in the park. They call it the Plank Walk. The path circles the center pond with attractions located at the rim. Following the path and you will can have a safe and organized journey around.

Canopies by the Lake – one of the attractions of the event. Booths and canopies are set up around the Lake with merchandise displays and showcase from various vendors and sponsors.

The Craft Bazaar have stall set up in three location. The Malay Townhouse, Top-Spinning Area and the Melanau Tallhouse.  Many hand crafts from beads, scarfs, clothing, braces and necklaces, woven baskets, hand made musical instruments and carved ornaments are available here. Some are crafted locally and some are imported crafts. It is truly a cultural exchange bazaar.

Other than Traditional Crafts for sale, visitors can also visit other attractions at the Sarawak Cultural Village. It is a Living Museum anyways, there are More houses and cultural display along the walk in the village. All material used are preserved as original as possible with actual people that can guide and introduce you into their unique culture.

We went also to the Rainforest Music House, here the history of Rainforest World Music Festival was told. In the house there is many musical instruments are on display, some are music instruments from the previous music festivals. Instruments include Drums, Trumpets, Percussion, Guitars and many more. It is a must visit place during the festival.

An now, a surprise !! The first-ever Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) was celebrated roughly 100 years in advance.

This 1890 photo of a merry picnic at Santubong shows a range of instruments which are still popular in the 21st Century, though most musicians manage without shotguns nowadays. But the site of this outing was just a couple of miles from today’s Darawak Cultural Village in Damai, where the RWMF has found its home.

Damai was and is the playground of Kuching, and now with RWMF … the world.

From the RWMF book, MUSIC WITHOUT BORDERS – Sarawak Tourism Board.

There are also hands-on session on Sape Tutorial . Sape is the Sarawak traditional Boat Lute. It is simple to learn and yet mesmerizing.

There are many more happenings around the Sarawak Cultural Village during the festival. Welcome and have a visit here if you had the chance. We did not wait till the night event, but it will be a great bonus for those who can stay till the nights.