Pesta Kaamatan: Maiden and lover kick off cultural fest

KOTA KINABALU: A cultural extravaganza over the weekend, set the pace for the month-long Pesta Kaamatan or Harvest Festival celebrations in Sabah.

Moroccan Rachid Faradj (second from left) trying out a bamboo saxophone with its maker Phillipus Jani (left) during Sabah Fest. — NST picture by Edmund Samunting

The Sabah Fest 2010 kicked off with a musical performance entitled "The Legend of Arung Salamiah, Semporna" over two days at Sutera Harbour from Saturday.

A handicraft and food exhibition, also held to liven up the extravaganza, will continue until the end of this week at the Sabah Museum.

A host of activities from songs and dance performances as well as handicraft making have been lined up for guests at the various traditional houses on display at the Heritage Village daily until Sunday.

The Sabah Fest, held annually for the past 20 years, has helped warm things up every May, an auspicious month for the Kadazandusuns as well as other native communities in heralding the rice harvesting season.

The main event for the fest would be the cultural extravaganza and this year's showpiece focused on a legendary story of a Bajau maiden and her lover, Tanjung Kalang.

Slotted in seven segment musicals were unique dances from the various ethnic groups in Sabah such as the Bajau's "panansang", Tidung community's "zepen suara siam", "lumumbai" by the Orang Sungai, "sazau bobolian" by the Papar kadazandusuns, "dang mangalai" by the Bongawan Brunei, "ansuwali" by the Serudung Murut and the "Joget 1Malaysia" as the finale.

On both nights, the musical was performed to a capacity crowd, mostly foreign tourists who were also invited to take part interactively with the musical in some of the dance routines.

German tourist Katherine Faradj, who was with her Morrocan husband Rachid Faradj and daughter Iman, claimed the whole package of events were very "colourful and unique".

"This is our first time in Sabah and it will not be the last," said Katherine, who said that her husband's colleagues in China introduced them to Sabah.

"I feel lucky because we get to see such a wide variety of culture, different costumes, music and most of all, the friendly nature of the people here."

(Source : NST online, 2010/05/04)