A Little Girl's Love: Photos from the Rainforest World Music Festival 2009

I had promised that day, as soon as i arrived home from Kuching, that i would--before i ever get busy again and then forget--write and upload some pictures of the Rainforest World Music Festival on to my personal 'online' photo and data storage that's on a few domain here on www.

Somehow, that never got actioned. *sigh*

But today,...well, i wanted to write and tell you a lot about the festival, but as i am lacking in time, i thought perhaps just showing you pictures (and some little details) of the festival might be best. Here are some that were taken on Saturday, Day 2 of the festival. Enjoy.

Unless you're a VIP or an official or one of the committee members for this event or a guest at the resort next to SCV, you're not allowed to drive straight to the festival grounds. You have to park your car at the junction of Santubong Resort and hop on the official shuttle to SCV for RM5.00 (per way). That was just what we did.

Official ticket counter--located at the junction of Santubong Resort just 3 minutes drive away from SCV--for the shuttle (a mini van, really) to SCV.

Upon arrival at the entrance of SCV, this sign immediately caught my eyes because i really thought they look very familiar. I remember seeing this sign in the making a few months back at this guy's little hut where he spends most of his time making the traditional Orang Ulu instrument called 'Sape' (pronounced sa-pe' - a kind of lute instrument carved from a single bole of wood). I was introduced to him--his name is Matthew Ngau-- by my fiance who takes weekly Sape lessons from him. Later, i got to know that Matthew is a well-sought after person by the Sarawak Tourism Board and the Malaysia Tourism and he's been on many of the country's tourism roadshows around the world displaying and performing tunes on the Sape. You'll see some of his pictures here later.

At the entrance, prior to stepping into the festival grounds, we had to go through a few health, safety and security procedures.

Bag check.

Thermal and and body scan. And then we're in.

Once we were cleared at the entrance, we made our way to our first stop--the Iban Longhouse.

This is at the Iban Longhouse, one of the three venues for the music workshops held in the afternoon--the other two being at Dewan Legenda and Theartre Hall. Only managed to attend the first workshop held at this longhouse.

'Instruments that Struck' was the title of this first music workshop at the Iban Longhouse. Commenced at 2:45pm, musicians from different performing groups shared their know-how on their music instruments. There was a troupe of musicians from Bali at this workshop who performed a music ensemble called 'gamelan'. And i found myself later grooving to their chants called 'Kecak'.

Inside the Iban longhouse - the 'ruai' (public hallway where gatherings are normally held)

Outside the longhouse - the 'tanju' (verandah or open porch)

And guess who i bumped into walking about the 'tanju' of the longhouse?

Cheryl Samad. Do you know her?
After the longhouse-- which we left before the first workshop finished--we walked around a bit.

Concert ground and Stage 1 (main stage). The 'X' indicates areas that people are not supposed to occupy and stand on. It serves as a pathway for the medic team should emergency situations (e.g. people fainting, etc) occur, also for other still 'sober and sane' people to tread on when they feel like they've had enough or simply need to make a doodie. But, no one really paid attention to this mark on concert time. So, it wasn't really that effective.

Stage 2 --used when performers' instruments on Stage 1 need to be cleared for the next group's instruments set-up.

The Orang Ulu house. Also available for a homestay experience during the festival, of course for a fee.
As we were walking, almost making one big round, we came by to a small desk where a lady was meticulously and skilfully applying henna designs on her customer's palms. I wanted so badly to be 'henna-ed' too but the line was too long to wait so i moved on.

There were others who found their own excitement while workshops in the three venues were going on.

At c. 5:30pm, we started to head up the slope close to Dewan Legenda to pick our sitting spot for the concert that evening. But there were others who were already there much earlier to 'book' their spots. More 'kiasu' that we were. Nevertheless, we still managed to spread our orange polytarp sheet on a good spot that's just a few meters left of the main stage (Stage 1).

The lady in green shirt is Audrey, a former colleague of mine, and that was our spot for the evening.

This is one of the best spots to sit if you don't fancy going to the center 'field' to shake your bomboms and go wild with the rest of them party people.

The concert started with a performance by a group from Malaysia called Asika.

Didn't take too many pictures of the evening concert as--just like my fiance and Audrey--my battery was running really low. But here are some that i managed to capture.