I just home from watching Jogja Java Carnival 2011 at
Malioboro Street. I parked my bike at my campus that located about 15 minutes
driving (normal traffic) from the carnival location and took the bus instead,
hindering the stress from the jam I might be trapped in. So at about 19.00, I
went from my campus to Malioboro Street by TransJogja and it took almost an
hour for the bus to dropped us at Sudirman Street where it’s about 5-10 minutes
walking to Malioboro Street (I should be able to get down at Mangkubumi Street
or Mataram Street where it’s gonna be right next to the main road of where the
carnival will be held). But as a result of the carnival that invited thousands
of people to gather in one place, a bus-shelter located next to Tugu Monument
was the nearest dropping point we could get.
I was walking happily and maybe I did some poor-you
expressions while I was walking through those people who got stuck in their
cars. And by the time I reached the starting point of where the carnival
started, even though I was walking on my
feet, I couldn’t move any further without causing others to feel uncomfortable
by a stranger asking them to give him a little space which would be hard to get
in that condition. So, on the sidewalk of the beginning of the road I stand and
just stayed there for the next 30 minutes to an hour. And in that time, I only
got myself in a disappointment of the carnival. It was because I couldn’t see
when they were performing and that I felt the gap between the audiences and the
performers and so did with the committees. I did see few of the performers
doing their dances and entertained the audiences on about 30 meters away from
where I was standing. It looked nice from my position but still, they were only
performing. I didn’t notice any audience being pulled to party with the
performers. I didn’t feel the festive atmosphere but to notice some performers
who looked at us with superior-inferior gap, and even most of them didn’t want
to get their eyes caught by the audiences. I couldn’t see them in their eyes to
get the smile from them. In another chance, we found one of the performers on
the moving stage was holding her mobile phone and looked busy with it. And one
audience standing behind me yelled to the crowd, “Oh look! The lady is texting someone
there!” It wasn’t nice.
This was kind of the same experience of when I was watching
the annual Gamelan Festival 2011. I watched the performances in the last day
because my expectation was that usually the last day is where the most
anticipated performances shown. I heard the event in 2010 and my friends told
me that the event was great and one of my friends watched all of the
performances shown in the whole 3 days every year. That was why I was there
expecting good traditional music performances. Which was also kind of
disappointment for me. In one session, there were music performers originally
came from Madura and they played great music that should makes every bone in
your body to move. The committees were trying to get the audiences to the party
vibes with them but they were only standing in few groups in some corners of
the stage. Joking around with themselves and made some inside jokes the
audiences wouldn’t be able to understand. Those factors, plus the audio-system
that wasn’t good enough to make my heart thumps with the music. It was a total
failure in my perspective. It wasn’t festive. Too shame because the performer
in the last session was so damn good.
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| Tomato Festival in Columbia |
I don’t know if I’ve missed the Jogja Batik Carnival or the
event hasn’t been held yet. But I’m very looking forward for this one for the
pictures I’ve seen where the people in costumes pulling the audiences to dance
with them on the street and they looked very friendly to the photographer.
Those impressions I got from the pictures I have seen. Let’s hope that the next
festivals held in Jogjakarta or any other cities in Indonesia can be
audience-friendly and be more festive. I always dreamed of a festival where the
audiences and the performers can only be identified from their outfits. Where the
audiences are experiencing the festival as if they are part of the festival.
Like what you can see in the picture I putted here.
