MIRI: The Miri Country Music Fest (MCMF) 2022 has launched the MCMF Gold Tournament and MCMF Buku Project.

These fringe activities in conjunction with the country music festival were launched by Minister of Tourism, Performing Arts and Creative Industry Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah on Thursday (Oct 13).

Abdul Karim noted that the MCMF in the past had attracted festival goers from all walks of life ranging from expats working in Miri, Bintulu, Brunei, Sabah to visitors from neighbouring countries and locals all the way from Lawas and Bario.

He said the golf tournament is a great way to expand the programme and to fully maximise the location for this year’s edition.

“Eastwood Valley Golf and Country Club has one of the best golf courses in Malaysia. Additionally, the promotion of the event lies not only with the organisers but the whole community from restaurants, hotels, bands, local councils and more.

“The people of Miri need to promote it because events like these benefit everyone. When the event grows, so does everyone in the community,” he said in a statement.

Meanwhile, founder of the festival Gracie Geikie highlighted the importance of education which can be supported through music festivals.

She said the MCMF’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative ‘The Buku Project’ with the theme One Book for Life will be collaboration with Knewton Global Schools Miri which is an international school here.

“The collection of preloved books will be collected from members of the public, festival goers and MCMF performers to be sorted then sent to two rural schools at Long Lama and Long Latei after the festival ends.

“We will also be curating music workshops by MCMF performers for students of Knewton. Moreover, we are teaming up with James Cook University and Curtin University to carry out event research during the MCMF,” she said adding the event was about capacity building.