Jakarta, IO – The Jakarta Arts Council Music Committee (DKJ) successfully organized the third International Ethnic Music Festival. It was initiated back in 2019 as “Etno Music Festival”, but in 2021 altered its name to “International Ethnic Music Festival” since it had invited other traditional musicians from abroad.
Last year’s festival was conducted virtually, while this year, the festival took place at Graha Bhakti Budaya, Taman Ismail Marzuki, Cikini Raya Street 73, Central Jakarta, and lasted for two days, from November 7 to 8, 2022.
The International Ethnic Music Festival exists to showcase traditional musicians, both locally and globally, amid the lack of public interest in traditional music. This form of musical only attracts a small portion of engagement with a limited audience, staged in certain places, or sometimes serves merely as a show for foreign tourists or in foreign countries. Barely appreciated by many.
According to Imam Firmansyah, a traditional music composer and member of the Music Committee of the Jakarta Arts Council Committee, “Traditional Indonesian music holds abundant awesomeness, something we need to introduce to an audience. Traditional music is open to collaboration with other musical genres,” he added.