Rainforest World Music Festival, July 8-10, 2011

Despite being the 4th largest city in Malaysia and the capital of Sarawak, Kuching is a relatively quiet town (especially compared to the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur).  Not much in the way of world-class events comes to Kuching.  But one event, the Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) had its start in Kuching in 1997 and has been held here every year since.

World, Meet Sarawak

Originally conceived as an idea to promote the music of indigenous Sarawakian tribes, composer and world music artist Randy Raine-Reusch worked with the Sarawak Tourism Board to create the Festival. The RWMF is about bringing the best of World Music – ethnic beats from all over the globe – to meet and to play together with local Sarawakian musicians at the Sarawak Cultural Village.

The RWMF has been named among the 25 Best International Music Festivals by Songlines Magazine for two years running. Over the course of three days and nights, musicians and music lovers will interact in workshops and concerts at the Village. This year, 22 bands from every continent (including two from right here on Borneo) will showcase their unique sounds.

So how come we’re going?

House of Annie is a member of an active community of bloggers from Sarawak called, appropriately, Sarawak Bloggers. Sarawak Bloggers, in partnership with Sarawak Tourism Board, extended an opportunity for three of its bloggers to cover the event as part of the media corps. We applied for, and were happily granted one of those coveted slots!

Our role is to raise awareness of the RWMF before the event, attend all the press conferences, workshops and concerts during the event, and blog about our experiences.

To give you an idea of what’s it all about, here are some posts from Sarawak bloggers who attended the 2010 RWMF:

Rainforest World Music Festival 2010 on Damadi.net

Rainforest World Music Festival 2010 on Amieyalen.com

The Rainforest World Music Festival 2010: the Media Pass on Cyrildason.com

Rainforest World Music Festival 2010 on Jipp World

Looking over the list of performers at RWMF this year, there’s a lot to be excited about.  I plan to showcase some of those bands on the House of Annie Facebook Fan Page in the days leading up to the Festival.

Becoming a Fan

The House of Annie Fan Page on Facebook is a place where we share extra stuff that you’re not going to see on the main blog site: interesting links, pictures, polls and updates – a little bit more about what’s going on in our day to day lives.

 

 

I’d love to meet you there, so go ahead and click the Like button to start following along!

Aloha, Nate