Rainforest WMF

Finally I am getting down to talking about RMWF. Well introductions first. This year 2007 is its 10th anniversary so it was expected that the programmes lined up would make up of some of the best groups from the past festivals.

There is so little information about the programme on the website. It was only when I got there that I found out all activities only start from 2pm every day and run till 1.30am, for all the three days. The afternoons cover workshops between 2pm till 5:15pm. There are in total 9 workshops divided into three time slots of 45 minutes each. For each time slot, you have to make a pick from 3 workshops held in three different venues: Theatre (aircon), Iban Longhouse, Dewan Lagenda.

The theatre is more like a small auditorium. It often gets so packed that the room is stuffy even with the air-con on full blast.

Iban Longhouse is a traditional house on exhibition in the Sarawak Cultural Village.

Dewan Lagenda is the large airy room with the largest capacity of the three venues. Dance workshops are also conducted here and withstood some serious vigorous stamping from thousands of feet.

In the evening, the concerts start from 7.30pm and go on till 1.30am.

Above is the crowd at 7pm when eager people start choping their favourite spot on the grounds.

This is the peak crowd on Saturday nite when the locals join in, swelling the numbers in the village to to some 25,000 people. The energy of the crowd is electric and high. It was akin to a rock concert. Friday evening and Sunday evening were less but still saw some 7000-8000 people.