What Went Down: RWMF ’13 @ Sarawak Cultural Village

By Alif Omar Mahfix  •  25 Jul 2013 in Reports

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Day 3
Waking up the next day with our hotel door swung wide opened — we rather not divulge what happened the night before after the show – it was almost revelatory; who knew a world music fest could get us into the sort of mischiefs more associated to Burning Man festival? Promising ourselves to not let this happen again the next morning… afternoon (our flight back was in the morning), we headed to the festival grounds again once our head wasn’t buzzing.

There were 2 workshops that we attended on the last day; Squeezebox and Umxhentso!. Both of which were probably the best we had at RWMF. The former was sort of microcosm of the accordion’s global prominence – the Pine Leaf Boys’ frontman, Wilson Savoy, played leader to the band of Denmark, Jamaica, and Ukraine accordion players. While it was an education in the instrument, we had more fun watching the guys play and Wilson struggling to communicate with them.

Umxhentso! by members of Dizu Plaatjies and the Ibuyambo Ensemble closed this year’s workshop with what we would describe as the heart and soul of the festival. Gathering a good lot of the attendees to Dewan Lagenda, the troupe successfully got us to participate in a euphoric dance orgy. It was an amazing sight to see people from all over the globe dance to the same rhythm.

The evening show this time around consisted more of proper ethnic music as opposed to anglicised and era-appropriated facsimile of it. The penultimate band from Denmark, Habadekuk, was the perfect bookend to this year’s RWMF as they got the majority of the crowd to uppercut their fists into the air while shouting “HABADEKUK!”

As they ended their set, the locals blessed the night with a traditional ceremony before the entirety of the lineup slowly filled up the stage into a crescendo of ethnic music macrocosm. As a sign of respect to the rainforest (and out of fear that we might miss our flight), we foregone the hedonistic desire for an after-party and had a good night’s rest instead.

RWMF, we will see you again.

Rainforest World Music Festival 2013 went down from 28 June to 30 June ’13 at Sarawak Cultural Village.  For more pictures, click here.