The Rainforest World Music Festival 2011

The Rainforest World Music Festival 2011 was held at the Sarawak Cultural Village, Santubong from the 8 - 10 July 2011.  This annual three-day event has never failed to draw large crowd of foreigners as well as locals.  this year, the newspapers estimated a crowd of around 20 thousand people for the first night and 25 thousand for the second and the third nights.   Most of them are repeated visitors, which means they come back year after year. Why and what's so special about this festival?  So, this year, I make it a point to get there to see it for myself.

The music and songs played offer alternatives to the mainstream music heard on radio and television.  No lady gaga lookalikes, just good musician playing good tunes and singing in their own native language.  Most people don't understand the lyrics of the songs but the beat of the music is universal, and it comes straight from the hearts of performers.  There is a strong bond between the performers and the crowd below the stage.  There is interaction and total physical response between the two which is seldom found in modern day pop concerts.  I have a few clips here and hopefully you can see what I mean.  However, please bear in mind that these clips were taken using a cheap, low-specs, point and shoot digital camera - so the quality may not be very good.

ISKWEW FROM CANADA

This short video clip is from the performance of the Iskwew from Canada.  They are from one of the native tribes there.  Their songs was about the universe and brotherhood - all sang in their own language - and in the middle of their singing, they came down from the stage and asked everyone to join hands in a circle and move in a clockwise direction according to the beat of the song.  Gradually, more and more people joined in, and just imagine thousands of people held hands in a giant circle that moved to the beat of the universe!  That's how powerful these performances are!!

LEWETON WOMEN'S WATER MUSIC FROM VANUATU

  

This is a unique performance by six very pretty women from Vanautu.   The performance was done in the afternoon with them singing an introductory song on the bank of the lake - as seen in the video clip above. Since they wore nothing except for some leaves, it would not be too safe to perform at night with all those infamous Sarawak Woman-Eating crocodiles lurking around the lake That aside, they gradually went into the lake and started their music by beating the water with their hands.  The unison of the beat create a base for them to sing their song.  It is truly a natural form of rainforest music.  

HERE ARE SOME STILL SHOTS OF THEM GOING INTO THE LAKE AND BEATING THE WATER WITH THEIR BARE HANDS TO CREATE MUSIC 

AN ACCORDION WORKSHOP AND JAM SESSION  

Liza Haley, from the USA, showing the audience her skills on the accordion 

 

There were also workshops on the different musical instruments held in the afternoon and I attended the one on accordion.  Here, five different accordion players from five different countries and who speak five different languages came together to share a common ground - playing the accordion.  Each of them tried to explain to the audience about themselves and their accordion and then suddenly before the session ends Jaoquin Diaz from the Dominican Republic stood up and suggested that they have a jam session - all agreed.  He started playing a popular tune and then one by one jammed in with his/her own unique style - the result - fantastic music from them, done without practice.  Here's the part of the jam session in the clip below: 

             
VICTOR VALDEZ TRIO

This trio comes from Mexico and the audience simply loves them.  They play beautiful Mexican folk songs to a contemporary beat, keeping the audience on their feet.  Again, they have a good rapport with the audience. When a group asked for a special song which was quite popular, they agreed to play it for them even though they never rehearsed that one before.  The result? - just look at the clip below:

The Rainforest World Music Festival is all about connection - positive connection between performers and audience.  The performers did better and better when the audience responded positively.  The audience's response energise the performers and in return their performances turn the audience on.  This year 21 groups from different parts of the world performed together to give the occasion a feel of a good music festival, however, there will be some groups which will not be as appealing to the crowd as others.        

In this festival, the audience is a participating one and not a passive one which stays seated in their places.

So, if you plan to go to next year's festival, be sure to be a participating audience or you will not enjoy the whole thing to the fullest. Do not go with certain expectations for you will surely be disappointed if your expectations are not met.