A festival for Balinese children
A cultural festival dedicated to children will be held in Denpasar this week. Entitled Rare Bali Festival, it provides space for children to express their creativity, as well as introducing Balinese culture to them.
Initiated by Penggak Men Mersi cultural house, the festival will kick off Thursday with a cultural parade featuring 1,200 children. The three-day festival will display cultural activities, a painting exhibition, a photo exhibition, as well as many traditional games for children.
The Kelihan (coordinator) of Penggak Men Mersi, Kadek Wahyudita, said that the festival would uphold the theme “Merawat Tunas Peradaban” (Caring for a Budding Civilization). The festival involves children from kindergarten level, to elementary school and junior high school.
“The festival is a communication tool for children to get to know each other without focusing on their social status, luck or lack. It is open to all children, including those from rich families, poor families, orphans, as well as the disabled,” Wahyudita said.
The festival will take place in several locations, including Penggak Men Mersi, the Puri Kesiman royal family compound, the Bindu River and Lingkar Photography.
The festival starts Thursday morning with a competition at Puri Kesiman to make klakat (dry coconut leaves woven into a roof covering), tipat (a coconut leaf rhomboid to cook rice cakes) and canang and kwangen (used for offerings).
On Thursday afternoon, the painting exhibition will be opened at Penggak Men Mersi and the photo exhibition at Lingkar Photography. These will be followed by a cultural parade on Jl. WR Supratman, around the Kesiman Catus Pata intersection.
Many competitions will be held during the Rare Bali Festival, including coloring, painting and traditional games, as well as one to create handicrafts from garbage
The parade will display eight traditional games performed by children from several art groups and elementary schools in Denpasar. A ngelawang show presenting five unique barong masks will also provide entertainment in the parade. The barong are barong somi (made from dry paddy leaves), barong kraras (made from dry banana leaves), barong endek (made from Balinese woven cloth), barong ambu (made from palm leaves) and barong busung (made from coconut leaves).
The parade will also feature children’s clothing presented by disabled children. A drum band in collaboration with a bleganjur (traditional percussion) performance will also jazz up the parade.
Some children will also ride in the parade in old cars. “Among the old cars, we will display the bemo roda tiga [three-wheeled minivan] which used to serve as a public transportation in Denpasar,” Wahyudita said.
Many competitions will be held during the Rare Bali Festival, including coloring, painting and traditional games, as well as one to create handicrafts from garbage. Several of these competitions will be conducted by Bindu River in the Kesiman area.
“By conducting several activities by the river, we are eager to make children more familiar with nature,” Wahyudita said.
There will also be a puppet painting workshop and woodcarving workshop.
Wahyudita said that the festival, which he hoped would be an annual event, was expected to support the positive development of children’s characters.
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