Ewan Lane Festival another venue for artists to showcase crafts
Published on: Tuesday, December 27, 2022
By: Anthea Peter
Ruben (middle), the Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu team, Kenji Chai, local artists, performers, and Jungle Skate Club skaters at the Ewan Lane Festival.
Kota Kinabalu: The inaugural Ewan Lane Festival organised by Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu is seen as a platform that is further uplifting the local arts scene in Sabah, giving artists another avenue to showcase their crafts.Launched on Dec 17, the festival is a celebration of hip hop music and culture, extreme sports (skateboarding), dance, design and art along Ewan Lane — known for its colourful graffiti art, situated next to Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu.
ADVERTISEMENT
Aimed at promoting the city’s urban culture and fostering community connections, the recently concluded festival featured street artists, painters, skateboarders, B-Boys, musicians, 14 influential Sabahan artists who made performances alongside rising youth talents.
Among famed local musicians featured were Sabahan rapper Benzooloo, music producer and songwriter MKNK, Hip Hop group Isobahtos, DJ Elouise Shane and urban street dancers from the Flexible Crew, among others.
Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu celebrates diverse Sabahan talents with the inaugural Ewan Lane Festival
Sabah-born International Street Artist Kenji Chai who was present at the festival commended the initiative as it gives artists a platform.
“There is a lot of good talents who do not have a platform, hence the Ewan Lane Festival is a good chance for them to express themselves,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
Koel of local Sabah Dusun pop duo “Sarayao” said the festival could also help hone more talents in Sabah.
“It will give local talents more exposure, so if we do this every year it would be good, we can scout for more talents,” he said.
ADVERTISEMENT
The festival also saw an open skate demonstration with the “Best Tricks” competition, which was won by Presley Aaron.
Azreen Amat of Jungle Skate Class said extreme sports have gained enormous popularity in Sabah, following the debut of the sport in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan last year.
“Local skateboarding community in Sabah aims to nurture talents to become future high performance athletes representing Malaysia for the Olympic Games. Hence, we’d like to applaud Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu for this great initiative.
“The Ewan Lane Festival is not only a perfect platform for our local skateboarders to showcase their talents but also a fun and exciting way to educate people about this sport,” said Azreen.
Hyatt Centric Kota Kinabalu General Manager Ruben Schrijver hoped to turn the festival into a yearly event.
“As a new hotel with a young and vibrant personality, we wanted to bring the local community together in a fun-filled atmosphere combining three much loved activities by the youths here – arts, music, and extreme sports.
“We are thrilled by the turnout and the positive feedback and are grateful for everyone’s support to make our first Ewan Lane Festival a success.
“We hope to make Ewan Lane Festival an annual event moving forward promoting urban culture to bring people together,” he said.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
