KUCHING: The rainforest fever has ended…so what’s next? This month of July is the beginning of festivities across Sarawak as festival-goers are just getting started, why not join the Borneo Jazz Festival (BJF) next week.
The event — from July 19 till 21 will be held at the Coco Cabana, Miri, featuring a mix of Hip-Hop, DJ (Disc Jockey) and Jazz music.
Looking into this matter, reporters from the New Sarawak Tribune went in for an exclusive interview with Festival director, Evelyn Hii.
Hii said BJF is a platform to inspire the local community in the international scene to collaborate through the vibe of music, especially jazz.
“If you ask why hip-hop? Well, there’s common roots in music which hip-hop and jazz shares. In jazz music, there’s a scat solo where we can say that jazz influences hip-hop.
“Also, we talk about when electronic music came what inspired it or how rap is telling a story through music. We want to project on this common interest.
“This year BJF will be collaborating music among our locals and international artistes in the performances and not to forget our music meeting, ‘From Jazz to Hip Hop’.
“For this, we invited the local and international artistes as guest speakers such as Joe Flizzow, Marques Young, DJ Maestro and Kirk Lightsey to share their views,” she said.
Hii also said the BJF is a platform to inspire the local community, especially the youth and expose them to international acts through music.
“Our own local artistes such as Clinto Chan, Pete Kalang and Joe from Sabah will be showcasing their talents at the festival.
“For this festival, we also included a talent search, where the winner, apart from the prizes, will be given a slot to perform live at the BJF.
“Not to leave out on our exclusive BJF-after-party which is available for those who purchase the three-day passes,” she said.
Hii added that like the Rainforest World Music Festival, the jazz festival will be implementing a no single-use plastic in the vicinity as well.
“There will be water stations install throughout the venue with help from Miri City Council. We also included a design workshop for recycle plastic waste and how we can change it into a form of arts,” said Hii.
The festival will also be exhibiting curated fringe activities. There will be talks on indigenous culture by Alena Murang, fitness and health activities such like yoga with the sound of sape and free spine and joint screenings by Miri’s specialist.
