Folk Music Festival 2017 Successfully Enliven Our Folk Spirit
Folk Music Festival was held for the first time in 2014, and was followed by the second show in 2016. Both earned huge success, so without surprise Folk Music Festival was held for the 3rd time at Kusuma Argo Wisata, Batu, in July 15th. Similiar to its predecessors, the 3rd Folk Music Festival was enlivened by many inspiring indie folk musicians from local or national scale, there were AriReda, Monita Tahalea, Payung Teduh, Stars and Rabbit, and many more. Choosing Kusuma Argo Wisata as the venue is bold, and at the same time, outstanding. It’s very rare that a music concert was held that far away from the busy downtown of Malang, but this bold choice resulted in an expansive outdoor venue with gorgeous city light scenery in the background, and comfy green grass to seat on. It was such different vibes we felt that night, with low-height stage, breezy cold night, all seating-in-the-grass audience, and heartfelt music.
The one thing we couldn’t agree was the placement of the stage. We thought that the citylight scenery was the major plus-factor Kusuma Argo Wisata was chosen as the venue. Too bad that the stage was placed across the magnificent citylight, not in front. Instead of watching the concert with city light as background, which would be much more mesmeric, the magnificent citylight scenery has to be backed up by the audience. What we adored very much from the show was the sound system. FMF crew succeeded in providing sound system that is able to give loud, clear sound despite the expansive breadth of the football court. The overall decoration was also superb, with yellow light bulbs lightened up the venue and white tents on the other side for food and merchandise stalls. However, we were a little bit disappointed with the food stalls. The food choice was not as diverse as what usually available in music festival. We were hoping to find trendy, innovative street food in the festival but overall the food choices was not more than standard. The stores was a little bit better than the food stalls, with unique cactus shop, indie clothes, bracelet, sunglasses, etc.
FMF 2017 was opened by a program called Makan Sayang in which the performers ate lunch together with the visitors in an intimate and friendly situation. Pagi Tadi from Malang opened the music festival and continued by two bands who auditioned from Gang of Folks, Manjakani and Irine Sugiarto. The enchanting Sandrayati Fay graced the stage in a simple dress and acoustic guitar performing songs from her collaboration project as well as her own. Bin Idris who we have interviewed on our newsletter in collaboration with FMF, brought his songs from debut album and latest one “Anjing Tua”. Iksan Skuter and Silampukau took the stage afterwards and their performances have been waited by a lot of fans. Danilla, being as carefree as she is, swayed us with her pop-jazz songs from “Telisik” and upcoming second album.
The next performance was AriReda, duo project consisted of Reda Gaudiamo and Ari Malibu. Famous for poetry musicalization, the duo sings many of their hits song. The ones we liked the most was when they sing the wistful “Hujan Bulan Juni”. Adapted from Sapardi Djoko Damono’s poetry, the song told about unfulfilled love, gives sad but romantic atmosphere to the show. Another ones we adored very much was the romantic “Aku Ingin” and the shady “Di Restoran”. Ari and Reda’s melodious voice, added with the accoustic guitar and the marvelous sound system, was perfect combination for such eminent night.
Monita Tahalea was next on the show, looking young and cute. Her songs were mostly more cheerful than Ari Reda’s. The stunning singer enliven the night with her popular songs from the catchy “Hai” to the heart-warming “Memulai Kembali” and “168”. She even covered Banda Neira’s song “Sampai Jadi Debu” (this made us miss Banda Neira). Next after Monitas was Float, who gave up-beat touch to the show. They perform their songs “Sementara”, “Pulang”, and many more. We thought that their performance didn’t stand out as much as the other performers. Payung Teduh seemed like the most awaited performer of the show, as the audience became more passionate when the band time to perform arrived. Some of the audience even stood, while waiting impatiently as they took long time to prepare the performance. As soon as Is and the other band members started to perform their songs, the crowd begin to sing along enthusiastically. This wasn’t found in the other musician’s performance; might be because Payung Teduh’s songs are more familiar for the audience. The band perform their most well-known songs like “Untuk Perempuan yang Sedang di Pelukan”, “Resah”, “Menuju Senja”, and many more. Is was energetic and funny, and at the same time building conversation easily with the audience, and he even explained the truth behind hoax news about the song “Resah”.
The night was closed by Stars and Rabbit and their set was magical as the sky went darker and the stars truly shined bright that night. Adi and Elda gave a mesmerizing touch to the whole night and made an unforgettable memories for the visitors of Folk Music Festival 2017. Alex Kowalski, founder of Sats.Co who hold Folk Music Festival, said that Folk Music Festival was held neither as celebration nor euphoria. Folk music festival is soul, a vibrant and exciting soul. There is always folk spirit in everyone’s soul, a part that always needs togetherness, warmth, and resistance. Folk Music Festival 2017 successfully enliven our folk spirit, giving us more than just a music festival.
Writer: Jatrifia Ramadhani/Editor: Novita Widia/Photo: Bonifasius Eiji
