We’ve been talking about Ubud a lot here recently, but we’ve got one more post about the cultural heart of Bali before we move on to other parts of the island and Indonesia in general – the 2015 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival. The 12th annual installment of this literary festival just finished up here, and what a weekend it was! With over 200 events spread across 40 venues over just four days, there was a lot going in Ubud this weekend. Despite a little hiccup in this year’s schedule – a series of events marking the massacre of alleged communists in 1965 were canceled after threats from authorities to close down the entire festival – the 2015 version was a huge success. Although I wasn’t able to attend all four days, I did manage to make it up to Ubud to catch a few talks and a concert on Friday night and also joined in the main program all day on Saturday. Here’s a quick recap of a great weekend at UWRF ’15:

Friday Night at Bar Luna

While the main program was full of discussions with authors from all over the world, there were tons of other events to keep festival attendees occupied. From cooking classes, to workshops, to bike tours, there was much more on tap in Ubud than just reading and writing. Unfortunately, the price tag of many of these extra events was beyond this blogger/language student’s meager budget, but they would certainly be worth checking out if you come next year and have a little extra Rupiah to toss around. One extra event that we decided to join was the Friday night program at Bar Luna, which consisted of a handful of interesting sessions highlighting the theme for the weekend – 17,000 Islands of Imagination.

We arrived at the tail end of a discussion entitled “Magic of Timor-Leste” with author Gordon Peake about his four years living in one of the newest countries on Earth. Next up was a presentation from Dimas Putra Pratama, an Indonesian chef with a passion for culture and cuisine. He shared with the audience his experience visiting remote Baduy villages in West Java to learn about the people, their customs, and, of course, their food. The Baduy tribes are split into two groups, Outer and Inner, with the Inner relying completely on nature – their houses are built of bamboo and straw, they don’t use any modern appliances, and they won’t even wear sandals or use shampoo. It was a fascinating discussion that tied in perfectly with the weekend’s theme.

Comic artist Peter van Dongen took to the stage next to discuss his famous Rampokan series. The two comic books – released in ’98 and ’04 respectively – detail the Dutch military actions in Indonesia. With a strong resemblance to the legendary Tintin comics, the series is much more dark and complex than the child-friendly adventures of Tintin. We didn’t catch all of his talk, but we did see him again the next day in a different session.

To close out the festivities on Friday night was a set of world music from Rizal, a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Java. Before he began his set, he introduced the audience to his unique instrument that he made himself. It’s called a “rasendriya,” and it’s a guitar/didgeridoo made from bamboo. Joined by a friend on upright bass, the duo took the audience on a musical journey of folk, rock, blues, and everything in between. Although we would have preferred a slightly rowdier crowd, it was a fun show and we enjoyed the music so much we even bought his CD on the spot. Check out Rizal and his wild instrument in this TEDx video:

Saturday Main Program

Being up at 8 on a Saturday is not something I do often, but it was well worth it to make it to the first panel of the day for the main program – “Influenced by Indonesia.” The comic artist from the night before was joined by Stanley Harsha and Beat Presser. All three men have had extensive experience traveling and living in Indonesia, which they have shared in their books. It was a lively discussion in the joglo building of Taman Baca that dealt with a wide swath of topics – politics, religion, the environment, and more.

For the second session of the day, we jumped over to the Neka Art Museum for a talk labeled “24/7” about the current state of the news media. A panel of world-renowned journalists were on hand for this one – Raj Kamal Jha, Step Vaessen, and Ati Nurbaiti. The talk was focused primarily on journalistic ethics and censorship – a very fitting topic given the events preceding the festival.

With so many excellent sessions to choose from, it was tough to decide on just one for the third part of the day. As such, we split our time between the two panels at Taman Baca. “Words are the Way” was a lively discussion with four talented poets, while “Making It” featured four young, recently-published authors. The audience gained insight into how the poets come up with titles and also received valuable advice from the young authors who have officially “made it” in the literary world.

After a non-stop morning, we had to take a quick lunch break before going to the next session. Thankfully that was quite easy, as the festival had set up a little food court with plenty of tasty options from around Ubud. Fueled up with pulled pork tacos and coffee, we were ready to tackle the afternoon.

Having lived in China for the past five years, the next discussion was the highlight of the day for us. Anchee Min is a Chinese-American author who has penned such works as Red Azalea and The Cooked Seed. It was absolutely fascinating hearing her tales of living through the Cultural Revolution – when she was sent to live on a collective farm – to her story of struggling to make it as a student in Chicago.

For our last panel of the day, we finally checked out the fourth venue for the main program. With a beautiful view overlooking the ridge walk, Indus provided an excellent space for a lively discussion titled “In a Child’s Mind” with Antonia Hayes, Sofie Laguna, and Emily Bitto. All three authors have managed to capture the child’s mind through their novels, and it was interesting to hear them explain their writing process to tell a story through the eyes of a kid.

Films and Music – A Great Saturday Night

Although the main program wound down at 5, there was lots to keep festival attendees busy in the evening. Over at Betelnut, we kicked back with a few cold Bintangs to watch a film entitled Bali: 1928 with black-and-white footage archived from the Island of the Gods. Much has changed since then, but the colorful culture of the island has remained the same.

To end an amazing day, we headed over to the Blanco Museum for what turned out to be one of the best free parties we’ve ever been to. The evening kicked off with a bit of storytelling from a village elder from Kalimantan. His tale of villagers using a squirrel to help them pick fruit off a tree and then subsequently abusing the poor little guy when his tail couldn’t handle the load was a reminder to all of us that we need to respect and cherish nature.

A group of villagers from another area then schooled the audience on the origins of humans and performed a traditional ceremony to bless the festival and all of the attendees. With much of their homeland currently burning as a result of awful forest fires, it was a powerful scene to say the least.

Although the festival was held in Bali, we were all taken on a journey across neighboring Java via the incredible short film Epic Java. Created by a few friends who wanted to showcase the beauty of their home through time lapse and slow motion clips, this film is beyond epic and is well worth a look. Just check out the trailer for a short glimpse:

The night’s festivities wound down in our favorite way possible – with a bit of live music. First up was a traditional folk band from Java, featuring an awesome lead singer who really got the crowd into the short performance.

Rizal and his friend then hit the stage for another performance, this time to a much bigger crowd. Having already seen his set the night before, we decided to call it a night after a few songs and head back home. Unlike many who flew from far and wide to join in this festival, we’re blessed to only live an hour’s motorbike drive away.

 

As an avid fan of music festivals, I don’t usually get too excited about other festivals – food, art, literature, etc. Thus, I went into the UWRF with low expectations. It was just something to do over the weekend and an excuse to break up the routine. That being said, we had a great time at the festival and would definitely encourage anyone who is a big fan of literature to attend. Plus, if it gets you to Bali, then it’s worth it for that alone!