HÄMEENPUISTO FIESTA 2014: A NOTE It was ten minutes before 15.00 (which should be the prime time for summer festival), when we were ready to start our first performance in an open air stage at the annual fiesta in Tampere, when suddenly the thick cloud hanging over Hämeenpuisto lashed out hard rain, gusty wind and thunderstorm. The weather was unprecedented as we were expecting sunny (well bit cloudy perhaps) and warm afternoon over Tampere on that Sunday. The harsh weather put all the audiences and the participants of the fiesta to find shelters at stands, cafes and trees nearby. The dancers and the gamelan players were trapped on the stage hugging in cold, some under the trees. All of our gamelan instruments, the kempul, kempli, kenongs and kendang were all wet, as the wind brought water to every corner of the stage. The storm lasted for 30 minutes, however, it was enough to put our performance plan in jeopardy. We were planned to perform five performances, two of which by Bhinneka are audio electrically backed performances. After the rain, when time was still enough before fiesta closing at 16.00, I came to the organisers and asked what their decision concerning the fiesta will be. The organisers explained that we could still use the stage and perform, however for the safety reason, there will be NO ELECTRICITY. For the organisers themselves, the fiesta has already over when the rain started. Then it was up to us to decide whether we would like continue with our performance or not. We were lucky that three of our performances by Banyu Petak are prepared for live performance. Despite the bad stage condition and after intense consultation with the Ambassador, Pak Ketut the leader of the Group and took serious note of all the members of the group’s concerns, both Bhinneka and Banyu Petak, we made our final call to PERFORM. We decided to perform with Banyu Petak. “We have already here anyway” they said, “we won’t get off the stage without performing!”. We were happy with our decision with Banyu Petak, however,the dancers from Bhinneka, were not possible to be performed due to unavailability of the electricity. The decision accepted by Bhinneka warmheartedly, even though I know that Bhinneka was also in very high spirit to perform, especially for their Bajidor Kahot which was supposed to be their Premier. To the old Finnish men who was standing in front of the stage asking, “Are you going to perform?!”, I replied “Yes, we are going to perform!”. Surely there were some crowds at the fiesta who were very keen to watch us perform. They have waited for us persistently amid hard rain and thunderstorm. and that was our story goes… The quality of the performers should not be seen on their performance during their best conditions, but whether they could still perform well during their worst conditions. This one at Hämeenpusito definitely was not the best condition for Banyu Petak to perform. At the end, we successfully performed our dances, The Janger and The Barong, and the crowds were burst in joy. It was not a large crowd though, but probably the most enthusiastic crowd I have ever seen! The crowds have enjoyed our performance, know our culture and learnt our spirit, perhaps that they will tell it to their friends and relatives. My high appreciation and respect to all of the Indonesian performers at the Fiesta that have done their best for the love of the Indonesian Culture, as well as to the Ambassador, all of the Embassy’s staff and the Indonesian Community in Tampere for their relentless support for our performance at Hämeenpuisto Fiesta 2014. Salam budaya!
Posted on: Mon, 11 Aug 2014 08:56:18 +0000
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