Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Sarawak Rainforest World Music Festival has reached a plateau

ALTHOUGH last year’s Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF) was threatened by the influenza A (H1N1) virus, the crowd turnout remained high with almost 22,000 visitors cramming the Sarawak Cultural Village (SCV) near Kuching.

The turnout for this year’s festival, however, was a disappointment to a certain degree.

While the organiser, Sarawak Tourism Board, blamed the just-concluded Fifa World Cup in South Africa, some say the event has reached it peak and people are just bored.

Experts in the industry claim that STB did not do its job efficiently, particularly in the promotion, marketing and sponsorship aspects of the festival.

Other issues were the increase in ticket prices and hotel room rates, accommodation problems and poor transportation to the festival venue and back to the city.

Despite the decline in the turnout, the 13th RWMF from July 9 to 11 was still a success. About 7,000 people attended the concert on Saturday night.

Randy Raine-Reusch, who helped start the festival in 1997, told StarMetro that there were several factors affecting ticket sales this year, but did not agree that the festival had reached its peak and was beginning to lose followers.

“Yes, I agree the event has reached a plateau, but there is room to enrich the festival. There are many ways to do that. It will continue to be the most-attended music festival in this region,” he said.

He said the decline in numbers this year was due to wrong marketing strategies and bad decisions — the sale of tickets and preparations were late.

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