 Bali Arts Festival is an annual performances, featuring a month of daily performances, handicraft exhibitions and other related cultural and commercial activities during which literally the whole of Bali presents its talents in dance, music and others arts.
The annual festival has its roots in Bali's small communities and villages such as in Ubud or Sanur, which considerable competition between groups to represent their regency. This starts in the villages and moves on to larger spheres, culminating in the decision to send the best groups to perform at the Arts Festival. In doing this, each group will show the world the uniqueness of their own village traditions while also honouring their ancestors
The origins of the festival date back to long before its inception and probably to the 1960s, when tourism started in earnest and there was a move to ensure that it should be market as cultural tourism or in Indonesian, pariwisata budaya.
Every year, the Bali Arts Festivals put on the classical dances of the island, such as the kecak, legong, gambuh, barong, baris, mask dances and the like, with each performance based on a theme. Original choreography is produced and old village dances and activities are revived. Over the years, the whole range of classical Balinese stories - the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Sutasoma, Panji - have thus been turned into massive Sendratari Ballets. Many of the performances are held at the amphitheatre, ehich can hold up to 6,000 spectators, on a stage that looks like a temple. |
