By Nancy Nais
KUCHING, June 19: The Sarawak Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture will consider introducing hybrid Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) next year.
This year, the RWMF 2021 kicked off yesterday through its first virtual experience after being absent for a year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and current Movement Control Order.
Impressed and in awe over the experience today, minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said the event recorded an unexpected success from its first day.
He disclosed that more than 56,000 people had watched the virtual experience on the opening night through www.rwmf.net, Shopee Live, as well as RWMF’s and TV Sarawak (TVS) Facebook pages.
At the same time, the www.rwmf.net platform received registrants from 78 countries, with the most coming from Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
“I am very happy with what Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) is doing for RWMF this year. The first day was a success because of the good response, not just in Sarawak, but from all over the world. It has superseded the physical numbers that we had every year, and the highest was 24,000 people for three days, two years ago.
“We can see that by doing it virtual, the reach is much higher,” Abdul Karim told DayakDaily after attending the second day virtual show and visiting the production site this evening.
However, he acknowledged that entertainment shows such as music festivals will always be better physically and nothing can beat that.
Therefore, he hoped that the pandemic would be over by next year so that Sarawak can physically hold its world renowned RWMF as before.
“Since there are a lot of interest where people actually log in to watch RWMF virtually this way, and if the pandemic is over, we will try to work on this hybrid method next year.
“So for those who cannot travel to Sarawak physically, they can still watch the show from where ever they are,” Abdul Karim said.
Praising the organiser STB for the success this time in bringing fans back to memory lane, he also believed that they would be able to promote Sarawak and RWMF better that way. —DayakDaily
