A lot of people own wayang shadow puppets as souvenirs, but few of us can truthfully say they’ve actually sat through a wayang show from start to finish. One of the main reasons for this is that these shows tend to be performed late at night and into the early hours of the morning.
But at the Nusantara Wayang Festival, taking place at the Fine Arts and Ceramics Museum in Kota Tua (Old Town), you can catch wayang shows at more convenient times during the day. Until October 11, visitors can check out plays from 11 renowned wayang performance groups from all around the county.
If you really know your wayang, then you’ll probably recognize be excited to learn that wayang performance groups such as Wayang Kulit Surakarta, Wayang Golek Ringkang and Wayang Kulit Betawi are performing at the festival.
This is a great opportunity to immerse yourself in Indonesian culture. You’ll probably want to buy your own puppet after watching one of these wayang shows (if you don’t own one already).
You can check out the festival’s complete performance schedule here.
