The Rainforest World Music Festival 2013 Gala Dinner put together elegance, music, beautiful people and fine food.
Dato’ Rashid Khan, CEO of Sarawak Tourism Board (www.sarawaktourism.com), presided over the event and officially launched the festival, presenting momentum gift to the festival sponsors. Dato’ Rashid Khan, in his speech, praised this morning tree planting ceremony, reminding all present that these kinds of events help to back to Mother Nature. He also commented that the Rainforest World Music Festival is an environmentally friendly festival, a green event where bio-degradable products are used. The festival multiple aims are to encourage youth to pick up music, bringing world-class artists’ interest in Sarawak, and to provide an opportunity to Malay bands to succeed in the world music scene. It also puts Sarawak music business in the world music map, and ensures local population benefits from such event.
Dato’ Rashid went on to encourage all participants to take time and smell the flowers, and be mesmerized to what Sarawak has in store. Dinner was great, complete with local curries, spaghettis and traditional local sweets, and was followed by a taste of what to expect in the following nights of the event.
The Pine Leaf Boys, a Cajun and Creole band from South Louisiana, played a mix of violin, accordion, flute and guitars and got everyone in the mood to dance. The South Korean band that followed played a variety of brass instruments, drums, harps and wooden flutes. The vibe was great, with lots of musicians and media, and interesting and colourful people. It was a joyous party where people of all races and religion mixed and matched, with a common denominator: have fun while looking forward to the festival to come.
