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17th May, 2007
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Fest ended over the weekend with an overwhelming response throughout its duration.
Sabah Fest is an initiative of Sabah Tourism Board and organised by its wholly-owned subsidiary Sri Pelancongan Sabah Sdn Bhd.
It is an annual cultural extravaganza taking place over two weeks highlighting various elements of culture through a performance of dance and music.
According to Sitti B. Damsal, general manager of Sri Pelancongan Sabah Sdn Bhd this year’s Sabah Fest indoor cultural show and grand launch on May 3 and 4 respectively saw a record audience of more than 2,000.
“Tickets were sold out for both nights and there were still requests for more. Unfortunately, we could not cater to more people due to the limited space,” she said.
Sitti added that the overwhelming response was a testament to the people’s growing fascination with Sabah’s melting pot of cultures.
“We are proud to be able to highlight some of the many ethnic groups and their traditions during every Sabah Fest. The event is not merely to entertain but to educate audiences – both tourists and the local community – on Sabah’s cultural heritage,” she added.
This year’s Sabah Fest also proved to be the biggest with a participation of some 600 dancers, musicians and crew.
One of the highlights of the show was a performance by the Gambus Orchestra, the first of its kind in Malaysia, and a display of the Mamapak Ritual of the Rungus people.
Daily cultural shows also took place from May 5 to 12 at selected locations including Wawasan Plaza, Palm Square, Jesselton Point, Warisan Square, Kompleks Karamunsing, Sabah Museum and Dataran Deasoka.
The daily shows comprised traditional dances such as the sumazau, bolak-bolak, limbai, daling-daling and anggalang magunatip to name a few.
Magunatip, a bamboo dance proved to be the highlight of the show for the audience.
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