MIRI, Nov 4: The Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture will maintain the hybrid (virtual) approach when organising the 16th Borneo Jazz Festival (BJF) and 25th Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) next year following the success of both events this year where bigger viewership was reached via online participation.
“The 16th BJF which would be held in Miri next year (2022) and the World Rainforest festival in Kuching are going to be in hybrid and physical approach, because based on our last year’s statistics, we managed to upsize our audience participation more compared to the previous year (prior to Covid-19),” said Assistant Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture Datuk Sebastian Ting Chiew Yew.
Ting who is also Piasau assemblyman disclosed this during a press conference held after chairing the Sarawak Tourism Coordinating Committee (STCC) at a leading hotel here.
“For the BJF which was held on June this year (running for three consecutive days from June 25 to 27), a total 244,637 viewers from 43 countries around the globe were viewing that event, while our World Rainforest Music festival recorded 402,664 viewers of 79 countries worldwide from three days (June 18 to 20),” Ting said.
“These events were proof that via hybrid or virtual participation, we can reached more countries. So we decided to continue with virtual and physical participation,” he added.
Reminiscing the first Wold Rainforest Music Festival, Ting said, it was late Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Jemut Masing who came up with the idea to create a music festival in Sarawak back in 1997.
“He’s the one who started it, and through him we were able to have this event,” he said. — DayakDaily
