Now, that's a real cultural exchange
Published on: Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Kota Kinabalu: A traditional costumes exchange ceremony Monday night kick-started the 10th Sabah International Folklore Festival 2015 which has attracted 17 troupes from as far as Mexico and Slovakia.A spirited Luaura Uazquez, troupe leader of Mexico, wowed everyone when she immediately donned the Kadazan wear given her as lead dancer Lordes Morquecho made heads turn as she twirled around and flaunted Mexico's typical traditional costume – the Jalisco. Slovakia; China; India; Republic of Sakha Takutia, Siberia; Latvia, Mexico, Bangladesh, Turkey. Kyrgystan, Kazakstan, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea, Brunei Darussalam, Philippines (Palawan), Indonesia, Slovakia and Malaysia are represented in the biggest such festival ever.
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Except for Malaysia, 16 troupes will take part in the usually keenly contested competition on Thursday and Saturday night, respectively, at the Sabah Cultural Centre, Penampang. Chief organiser Datuk Wences Anggang, Chairman of the Sabah Cultural Board, said: "This is the first time we have started the festival by exchanging traditional costumes. The idea is we are going to have a gallery of all the various traditional costumes throughout the world, ultimately.""We are going to do the same thing every year from now whenever we have the festival. In the end, we'll have a good collection of all the traditional costumes of the world." On the biggest folklore festival ever, Wences said: "There were so many countries interested. I believe 40 countries applied but we have to limit number, logistics is one, secondly, finance!" he laughed.
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Datu Rosmadi Datu Sulai, General Manager of Sabah Cultural Board, said: "This year is a very colourful year for us. We got a lot of participants across the board and for the first time, we managed to get the Mexicans to come over. This is a very new thing, we are targeting the Latin American countries and hopefully by next year, we are going to get more." Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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Daily Express is the media sponser of the festival. For tickets to the competitions contact 088-268836, Sabah Cultural Board; 088-715466, Sabah Cultural Centre Penampang; Liaison Officer Jason Blasius: 0138501579 and for further information: 088-258762/269862.
