Athletes, artists to take part in Lake Toba Festival Traditional mask dance A number of international athletes and artists are set to liven up the Lake Toba Festival (LTF) which is set to be held on Samosir Island, North Sumatra, Sept. 8 to 14. Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa is slated to inaugurate the annual event on Sunday. LTF organizers said international athletes slated to take part in the annual event included world-class swimmers Thomas Lurz from Germany, Spyridon Gianniotis from Greece, Martina Grimaldi from Italy and Poliana Okimoto from Brazil. They will encircle Samosir Island as far as 117.6 kilometers in the World Super Swim exhibition. Besides the athletes, international artists from India, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, South Korea and the United States, will add to the excitement of the week-long event by taking part in the World Drum Festival. LTF organizing committee head Mangindar Simbolon, who is also Samosir regent, said that the swimming event around Samosir Island and the World Drum Festival were two new events being held this year. Mangindar added that the swimming event would see four international swimming champions from Australia swim alongside Indonesian swimmers for three days and two nights. He said the participation of international athletes and artists had been planned by the organizer to make this year’s LTF more festive and known abroad. Lake Toba is the largest volcanic lake in the world. “We hope that through this event, more foreign tourists will vacation in Lake Toba,” Mangindar told The Jakarta Post on Friday. He said the event, which was aimed at promoting the natural beauty of Lake Toba, was organized annually together with a number of regencies and mayoralties whose jurisdictions encompass the Lake Toba area. Mangindar added that the provincial administration and the central government supported this year’s event. Starting this year, Lake Toba Festival activities will be included in the national calendar of events. “The LTF will be organized annually in the second week of September,” said Mangindar, adding that thus far the event had been organized by the provincial administration under the name Pesta Danau Toba. Samosir Regency Manpower, Youth, Sports and Tourism Office head Waston Simbolon, who is also the LTF sports committee head, said sporting events at the LTF would include paragliding, which would see participation from 140 national and regional athletes from various provinces in Indonesia, while the solu bolon (royal traditional Batak) boat race would see participants from North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Riau. Besides sports, added Waston, a number of cultural activities would also be held, such as the Sigale-gale carnival, featuring the Batak Sigale-gale culture, ulos, topeng Batak (Batak masks) and a singing competition that would involve around 1,000 participants. Pangururan community elder Hartanto Sigalingging hoped that the LTF would help improve the welfare of the communities around Lake Toba.
Posted on: Tue, 10 Sep 2013 02:48:01 +0000
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