This is not my regular blog post and does not reflect the many nice people I met at the festival. This letter is directed at the management of the Rainforest World Music Festival and the Sarawak Cultural Village. I apologize as the letter is scathing:
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I have plenty opportunities to attend concerts of world music in air-conditioned, acoustically sound halls with comfortable seating. However, I chose to brave the heat and humidity of the rainforest to research the local music of Sarawak and to gather more resources on world music only to find great disappointment. There were many aspects of the festival which were disappointing and a letdown after all the hype. During the course of the festival, I had to listen to the grouses of many foreign tourists and appease them.
Tour brochures state that the Sarawak Cultural Village the best living museum in Southeast Asia and I have to agree with it, after visiting many similar museums around the world. I have visited the museum three times prior to this visit. The museum is designed to be visited with a guide and items are not labeled for individual browsing. However, this famous living museum was dead for the festival three days and the day after. The Sarawak Tourism Board should answer to the tourists who were expecting the SCV to be running. I was appalled and shocked when I arrived at the museum to find that it had fully suspended its normal activities. The houses were unmanned and there were no demonstrations of the local arts and culture. There was no notice on the website of either the RWMF or the SCV that stated this.
The RWMF only had programs from 2:00 pm-5:30 pm, with the evening concerts starting at 7:30 pm. The full suspension of the museum programs left tourists who arrived early or who did not want to attend workshops with nothing to do besides eat and shop. The administration of the SCV should have taken advantage of the attendees of the festival and provided alternate activities to complement the RMWF festivities. You would be surprised to know that in the three days of this festival I never witnessed neither a Malay joget, nor an Iban ngajat, nor a Melanau bamboo dance nor an Indian bhangra nor a Chinese lion dance. In fact, I took it upon myself to teach the volunteers the bamboo dance and danced it myself. I do understand that with the influx of thousands of people for the festival would have affected the normal day-to-day running of the museum. It would have been wise to schedule a few performances at the different houses, instead of totaling canceling everything. I had to convince many tourists and Malaysians that the SCV is a living museum, the tourist brochures were not a lie and they should revisit another day.
As for the RWMF, I could not fully enjoy myself given the disorganization. This is the 10th anniversary and it looks like this is the inaugural year of the festival. Annually, I attend an acoustic music festival in Winfield Kansas, where the attendees number to 17,000, nearly doubling the town’s population of only 10,000. Concerts start at 9:00 am until 1:00am with four different stages going at one time. If such a small town could organize a world class festival drawing names like Tommy Emmanuel from Australia and bands like Cherish the Ladies and the Dixie Chicks, Kuching can surely handle the RWMF. It is also not more expensive than the RWMF costing only USD$80 for the 5-day pass.
Firstly, there was no map of the SCV in the program booklet. I have visited the SCV three times so I knew my way around. The volunteers were usually standing around and I was not exactly sure what their duties were. I was also surprised that people who bought advanced tickets had to wait longer in line than the people who walked up to the counter at the SCV. There were usually only 2 lines for admission, with very confusing signs for re-admission. The exits were also confusing as nobody knew how many lines or what lines were for which shuttle. You could be politely queuing up in the wrong line.
The shuttle service was a shock to most of us as the bus would not leave until it was full. We thought it would be a timed shuttle and were annoyed that it spent lots of time circling the city. The 12:00 noon bus only left the city for the SCV at 12:50 pm, after some tourists scolded the driver. Thankfully, I made it in time for the first workshop. The return shuttle from the SCV was also the same. However, they should be commended for having enough buses.
I left the concert early on Friday as the crowd became so rowdy as the time went on. I pitied those who were less able and had to remain seated. There were no sitting areas or bleachers set up. At the festival where I’m a regular, there were places for those who were going to dance and those that were going to sit. If in the unlikely event of an emergency, it would have been utter chaos. Without a map, an evacuation plan would have been difficult to follow. Security patrols were only seen on the fringe of the crowd. It was doubtful that they could prevent any unruly behavior. I do not mind having a great time at a festival but watching people waving glass bottles while drunk is unpleasant. I didn’t mind the beer, wine and tuak sales but I saw people who brought in bottles and bottles of liquor.
On top of this, they also ran out of evaluation forms on Friday. There is no excuse for not knowing or estimating how many people would attend the festival. According to the organizers, there was a limit in ticket sales. Furthermore, the SCV also only has a capacity for 8000 people.
Despite these, I returned on Saturday and Sunday to learn as much as I could for my course. I had to resign myself to watching the concert from the screens instead of braving the crowd. I also talked to the staff of the SCV about learning their cultural dances to teach my students in the USA. They requested that I return on Monday when things were supposed to return to normal.
I patiently waited till Monday and paid the admission and shuttle (totaling RM70) to get to the SCV for the 4th day in a row. I checked with the admissions, the bookstore, the staff at the houses to make sure they would be teaching the dances. When the time came, the teachers were nowhere to be found. I had to go to the office where they kindly asked me to return to Kuching later or come back the next day. I could not as I was scheduled to perform and lecture that evening. I would miss my flight if I returned the next day. Apparently, the staff was too tired as they were cleaning up after the festival. Imagine my great disappointment! I had traveled thousands of miles to vacation in my own country and learn my own country’s culture only to be turned down again and again. One’s patience only goes so far. Please take note that I defended your museum’s reputation constantly during the three days of the RWMF. I hope the people I talked to don’t call me a liar as well!
Suggestions for future RWMF/SCV:
1.SCV should operate on a lesser scale and not totally suspend its programs. It is a prime tourist destination for Kuching, Sarawak available year round and should be prominently featured and marketed to the world.
2.Alternate activities must be offered. Perhaps you could organize competitions, kid-friendly workshops, instrument or craft making workshops, short dance demonstrations scheduled by the SCV staff or volunteers. We are paying for a day ticket but there is just too much time when nothing is going on.
3.Rotate the workshops so more people can take advantage of them. Also this would allow for more capacity and room, not to mention this would preserve the structure of the buildings.
4.Please insert a map of the SCV in your program book. Don’t take for granted that it is easy to navigate and everyone will know where things are or have great memory skills.
5.Allow advanced tagging for those who have purchase tickets the week of the festival. This could be done at a central location in the city where tickets are being sold. Tag the 3-day weekend pass holders and Sat-Sun pass holders once. It saves everyone a lot of time and energy, not to mention not standing in the tropical heat.
6.A timed shuttle needs to operate whether or not the bus is full. There also needs to be service from the SCV in between the hours of 1730 and 2230. There were many of us who were tired out and wanted to leave but had to wait for 5 hrs.
7.Alcohol sales need to have some sort of regulations.
8.Security patrols should be among the crowd not on the fringe of the crowd.
9.Train your volunteers to be knowledgeable about the SCV to work alongside the museum staff.
10.Engage volunteers, uniform units or the national service to help clean up during and after the festival. Leave the regular SCV museum staff to do their job which is to cater to the tourists.
If I were to rank the quality of the performers, I would say that the music was great. It is the only reason that made me stay the whole weekend. As far as the food and craft vendors go, the prices they asked for were fairly reasonable. Would I return to the festival again? No, thanks to the lack of organization. Will I come back to the SCV? No. I now understand why Malaysian music is still largely undocumented and unknown to the West. However, I wish to commend Mr. Mohamad Suffian Abdillah for all his efforts to help me at the SCV. The Sarawak Tourism Board should answer to all these and how you have failed to sell SCV to thousands of tourists. It is afterall “Visit Malaysia Year 2007” with about 5 more months to go.
See you in Winfield, Kansas at the Walnut Valley Festival!
