Bali’s biggest cultural festival extravaganza is coming soon, so if you are around, it is definitely worth checking out to experience some of Bali’s most dynamic and spectacular performing and visual arts, from the traditional to the contemporary.
The Annual Bali Arts Festival, which is on its 39th year, has released its month-long program schedule and it is jam-packed with dances, music, puppet shows, and other cultural performances and exhibits.
Headquartered in Denpasar, the festival’s programming will primarily be held at Taman Werdhi Budaya Arts Centre (the Denpasar Arts Centre) and will open with a big parade in front of Denpasar’s iconic Bajra Sandhi monument.
The festival runs a full month, from June 10 until July 8 and features the theme ‘Ulun Danu’ this year, which can roughly be translated as meaning ‘Preserve Water as a Source of Life,’ as ’Ulu’ means source, upstream, or center, while ‘Danu’ means lake or water source.
“In Balinese culture, water is a symbol of life itself,” says A.A Gede Yuniartha Putra, head of Bali’s tourism agency.
“Ulun Danu is a local wisdom in the form of knowledge about how we should conserve, honor, and manage water as a source of life, livelihood, and civilization,” Putra said.
And while the festival is mostly paying tribute to Balinese culture, other Indonesian cultures will be represented there as well. If you have any interest in the Acehnese, then check out some of the programming put on by the Aceh Tourism Agency.
Find out more about the festival here.
