International Javanese Gamelan Festival 2011

After months of preparation, 19 UTP Gamelan Group Sanggar Kirana players accompanied by En. Ahmad Pg Abdullah and his staffs finally made their way to Bandung, Indonesia for the International Javanese Gamelan Festival 2011. The 3-day event held from the 10th-12th June 2011 was hosted by Perkumpulan Seni Tari dan Kerawitan Jawa, Institute Teknologi Bandung (PSTK-ITB).

KLIA and Soekarno-Hatta International Airport

We arrived on the 9th of June at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta and was greeted by our liaison officer, Rasyid Aziz as well as a few committee members of the event. The journey to Bandung was about 3 hours and by the time we arrived at Rorompok Hotel it was already late at night.

yeay da sampai Jakarta!

Even though we were tired from the long journey but our stomach was already growling so with sleepy eyes we made our way to a nearby food stall for some supper before heading to bed (budak SK mane leh tak makan lama2 kan hahaha). The next day we all headed to ITB for a technical meeting and sound check. After some concerns were addressed and making sure everything was in order we made our way back to Rorompok where we spent all day training and making sure the performance that we gave tomorrow was top notch.

Gamelan terlengkap se-Indonesia yang dinamai Kiai Sekar Ganesha Lokananta

Saturday, 11th June 2011, 0600hours. It might seem too early here in Malaysia but over in Bandung the sun was already up and Rorompok was buzzing with boys and girls playing dressed up and making sure they look as pretty and as handsome as they can be. Hair and make-up for the girls took quite some time as usual but alas by 8am we were all set to go. The boys looking like warriors and the girls looking lovely as princesses.




Once we arrived at ITB we met up with Tuan Haji Mohd Noor Rosli Baharom, Deputy Vice Chancellor of UTP who has always been there supporting us in pursuing this passion of ours. He gave us some words of advice and wished us all the best for our performance. We were then seated for the opening ceremony which began with a speech from Teguh Wibowo the Project Director of the event.


We were the third group to perform that day and Alhamdulillah everything when on smoothly. We started with a brief introduction on the history of Gamelan Melayu where we acted out a scene from the olden days where the princesses are in the garden entertaining themselves with the soft melody of the bonang and the singing of "Timang Burung" and "Togok" whilst the guards and warriors are listening in and trying to grab the princesses attention.

After the brief introduction we then continued with a medley of traditional Gamelan Melayu songs followed by our contemporary song which tells the story of the ups and downs of life experienced by a Prince. With the theme that in life we will be faced with all kinds of challenges and we should always stay strong and never give up we acted out a scene where we are all on a ship sailing far away when suddenly a storm hits us. But we managed to overcome it and we slowly band back together and rebuild our ship and continue our journey so that we can be reunited with our loved ones.

Even though we had some technical issues during the performance itself that could not be avoided we are all proud of ourselves in being able to overcome it professionally and giving the best performance we could give. This has taught us to always be prepared with whatever challenges that comes to us and to always keep calm. No matter what happens we know that SK, our family, is always there to support us.


We would also like to take this opportunity to thank ITB for inviting us to attend such a great event and we hope that our friendship will continue on. We are really touched by the warm hospitality that you have provided us and we hope that one day we might be able to return the favour. Good job on such a successful event and all the best in the future. Also a big thank you to Umar for the workshop you gave us which has helped us in preparing for this event. And also thank you to all those who has supported us, our friends, families, UTP staffs especially those from co-curriculum unit and big shoutout to En. Ahmad for all the support you have given us, we will forever be indebted to you.


Personally we have definitely learned a lot from this event and the time spent there with everyone is something that will be cherished forever. Here's to hoping that UTP Gamelan Group Sanggar Kirana will continue on this great legacy and make a name for themselves ;)