2013 has passed, now 2014 is coming. If you visited Jakarta when New Year Eve and join Indonesian people at Hotel Indonesia Round About (Bundaran Hotel Indonesia), you would see fanfare Jakartans coming from ethnic diversity in Indonesia waiting for the new year’s eve. They showed cultures of each area on stage that has been provided by the organizers from the government of DKI Jakarta.
Yeah… Jakarta will be the gathering place of many Indonesian cultures and Betawi as the native culture of Jakarta becomes the housefather.
Jakarta Festivals
Before the New Year eve, there have been some carnivals and festivals held since Joko Widodo is appointed as Governor of DKI Jakarta. His vision is to make Jakarta as the center of many Indonesian cultures. Therefore, the events will continue to be held every year and it will be very interesting.
1. Java Jazz International Festival
Java Jazz international festival presents Jazz musicians from various countries in the world and has been carried out regularly since 2005. Jammie Cullum, Dave Koz, Eric Benet, Lisa Ono or Santana are some of the musicians who have performed in this event. Among 1300 musicians and more than 20 stages are scattered in a wide area. You will enjoy various musical genres including R&B, reggae, and Soul, even Indonesia traditional music. For this year, this event will be held on February 28 – March 2, 2014.
2. Jakarta Food and Fashion Festival
This is a culinary feast held for a month so you can enjoy if you visit Jakarta. In this event, you will easily find a variety of Indonesian traditional foods. You will find famous foods like rendang, nasi goreng, and sate.
When the food parade takes place, a fashion show is also held, bringing an Indonesian designer who comes from a blend of traditional art and modern style like batik, tenun toraja or tenun buton. This event will be held on May 1- May 31, 2014.
3. Jakarta Night Festival dan Jakarnaval
These two festivals are the series of Jakarta anniversary which is celebrated annually on June 22. Jakarta Night festival held again in 2013 after a long vacuum. The show is filled with a variety of traditional music on some stages at Sudirman and Thamrin streets. This folk event is free, and we can see giant Tumpeng distributed to the people.
Jakarnaval is a creative fashion presentation and arts street which have thousands of participants. The participants will walk around the National Monument (Monas). A lot of uniqueness you will see in this event and the best moment to take photos and to make a short film.
4.World Royal Heritage Festival
This festival was recently held at the end of 2013 ago. The event featured a variety of identities and information from the Indonesian kingdoms and other royal kingdoms in the world. The royal exhibition, unique culinary empire, and the parade of all participants enlivened this event. In 2013, participants were from 165 Indonesian kingdoms and 10 royal kingdoms of the world such as the UK, Sweden, Japan, Denmark, Norway, etc.
Not only those 4 festivals and carnivals held by Jakarta Government. There are some other cultural festivals that will be held every year that bring Jakarta the place to see the beauty of Indonesia.