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The Bali Arts Festival is a full month of daily performances, handicraft
exhibitions and other related cultural and commercial activities
during which literally the whole of Bali comes to the city to present
its offerings of dance, music and beauty. On display are trances
from remote mountain slopes, forgotten or recently revived village
dances, food and offering contests, classical palace dances, stars
of Balinese stage, odd musical performances, "kreasi baru"
(new creations) from the dance schools of Denpasar, as well as contemporary
choreography and dance companies from other islands and from abroad.
It is a month long revelry that perhaps no other place in the world
can put up on such a low budget as the Balinese. Not only is their
traditional culture alive and well, but they have a tremendous pride
in it.
It begins in the villages, where the seka or cultural groups are
selected and organized at the regency level, vie with each other
to perform the Arts Festival and thus display in front of a large
audience the uniqueness of their village of birth and resting place
of their ancestors.
The Bali Arts Festival is the Denpasar cultural event of the year,
perhaps it would no be too far fetched to suggest that it is the
cultural event of Indonesia. The festival is thus a unique opportunity
to see local village culture both "live" and at first
hand. Tourists are warmly welcomed.
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