By Shikin Louis
KOTA SAMARAHAN, Nov 17: The Samarahan Food and Cultural Festival (SFCF) 2025 is set to take place at Pasar Tamu MPKS grounds in Desa Ilmu here from Nov 21 to 29.
Organised by Kota Samarahan Municipal Council (MPKS), the festival will provide a total of 46 food and beverage stalls, 10 dry food and craft stalls, 10 food truck lots and six exhibition canopies to vendors.
Sarawak Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the festival aims to highlight traditional and popular food, arts, customs and traditional games that reflect Sarawak’s diverse heritage.
“Cultural performances such as ‘bermukun’, ‘bertandak’ and ‘kompang’ from the Malay community, ‘Gendang Pampat’ from the Iban community, as well as performances by the Bugis and Chinese communities will be staged nightly.
“We will also have popular entertainers including Baby Shima, Baggio Damasutra, Mawat, Rickie Andrewson and Winnie Albert to perform throughout the festival,” he said during the SFCF2025 press conference held at MPKS building here today.
He added that participants from Kelantan, Kedah and Melaka will perform through a collaboration with Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), with additional performers from Indonesia and Thailand.
Side events include Samarahan Idol, SFCF Fun Run, cooking contests, pineapple arrangement competition, Aerobathon Challenge, Battle of the Bands and a three-hour nonstop Zumba session.
When asked about the targeted number of festival-goers, Abdul Karim, who is also the Asajaya assemblyman, expressed hope that MPKS will exceed 250,000 visitors, especially with the festival extended from seven days to 10 days this year.
The festival began in 2017 as the ‘Samarahan Food Festival,’ later coming under MPKS in 2019. It was rebranded as the ‘Samarahan Food & Cultural Festival’ in 2022 and held at the Summermall carpark, followed by its 2024 edition at Aiman Mall.
MPKS also aims to position SFCF2025 as a distinctive annual event within the Sarawak Tourism Calendar to attract more local and international visitors.
Also present during the press conference were MPKS chairman Abang Ismawi Abang Ali, deputy chairman Daily Joseph, secretary Gustian Durani and accountant Dixon Ongke. — DayakDaily
