Jakarta, IO – The 9th Prambanan Jazz Festival was successfully held for six days, i.e. on 7, 8, 9 and 14, 15, 16 of July 2023. Performed at a proud Indonesian historic site, the Prambanan Temple, its theme of “Magical Experience” was deeply felt. It is a musical, cultural, and performance show masterpiece that PJF Lovers greatly appreciate.
Anas Alimi, founder Prambanan Jazz Festival as well as of Rajawali Indonesia, proudly declared that the 6-day performance was “…the first of its kind in Indonesia.”
The Prambanan Jazz Festival has always carried the message of cultural diplomacy. “We aspire to elevate Prambanan Jazz into a world-level cultural diplomacy effort. This time, we present 12 international artists, and you can see how excited, how happy they all are when they see our proud heritage, the lovely Prambanan Temple. They freely admit that it is the only one in the world,” Anas enthused.
The 12 international singers/musicians who have become part of this year’s Prambanan Jazz Festival history were Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox, Lukas Graham, Eric Benét, Faouzia, Gipsy Kings by Andre Reyes, Vertical Horizon, BOND, Conor Maynard, Tunde (Voice of Lighthouse Family), Seafret, Lucky Chops and Gemini.
The Festival’s mission of cultural diplomacy, i.e. to bring in international musicians to provide positive promotion for Indonesia’s tourism, was a success. “It is gratifying for us how all our artists posted their performance using the Prambanan Temple as the backdrop. It is a silent testament to our efforts to prove that Indonesia has the best culture and venue in the world,” Anas declared.
The “Magical Experience” concept for the 9th iteration was expressed with the special collaborations of this year’s lineup, especially among the local artists on show. These include The Gentlemen (Fariz RM, Mus Mujiono, Deddy Dhukun, Tony Wenas feat. Prof. Adi Utarini), The Groove feat. Tiara Effendy, Krakatau feat. Andre Dinuth and Barry Likumahuwa, TBA feat. UN1TY, Humania Revival (The 30th Anniversary), Candra Darusman feat. Adikara Fardy and Aimee Saras, Klakustik of Kla Project, Arsy Widianto feat. Tiara Andini, D’masiv Jazz Project, Denny Caknan, and the special collaboration between the King of Dangdut, Rhoma Irama and his Soneta band, with Trio Lestari (Tompi and Sandhy Sandoro).
Some of the artists were featured more than once Tulus and Kahitna performed three times each, while Maliq & D’essentials and Dewa 19 each appeared twice. Respectively, they featured Virzha and Ello in the first week and Ari Lasso and Virzha in the second week. Their collaborative efforts also closed the 2023 Prambanan Jazz Festival.
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As the Prambanan Jazz Festival is an effort to promote Indonesia’s tourism through music and performance arts, Anas expressed his hope that more people will support the event next year. “Again, the Prambanan Jazz Festival is our effort as the sons and daughters of the nation to promote our Homeland, to attract more international tourists here through music. We aspire to win more stakeholder support for next year’s PJF, especially from the local Government. What we are doing now is more than just an acknowledgement that ‘money talks’ – we are talking about our future vision, i.e. about how other than getting profits, we need to organize events with specific vision and missions,” he declared.
In his closing statement, Anas went on to express his gratitude towards everyone who supported the events: sponsors; regional and national Government agencies; the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology; the national Armed Forces and Police for their guardianship of the venue; and everyone else behind the event’s success. (des/ast)