Independence Day of a country is always celebrated in different ways. In Indonesia, people celebrate the Independence Day which fall on 17th of August by holding various events to entertain people. Climbing slippery pole to get prize at the top is a favorite event in almost all regions in Indonesia.

However, Rama group did not hold a climbing slippery pole in celebrating the Indonesian Independence Day. This company which has several hotels and also restaurant held a festival named Kuta Sidewalk Festival 2008 from 16th up to 18th August. In accordance with its name, this festival was held in the sidewalk of Kartika Street, Kuta.

Many booths stood along 100 meters of the sidewalk. The first booth was a traditional food booth accompanied by the chef. The chef had served many Indonesian foods such as pukis, serabi, etc. But it was not only Indonesian; there were also Balinese food such as lawar, pepes, and many kinds of Balinese hot sauce. Another booth sold Batik dress which is being up-to-date fashion in Indonesia nowadays. And that series of booth was ended by Baker’s Corner, a food booth.

But this festival was not just a festival. This festival tried to arouse Balinese youth’s interest in majejahitan (Balinese women duty to create traditional ceremonial stuff from young coconut leaves) which decreased from time to time. Therefore, there was a booth guided by two Balinese women. These women did not only demonstrate their ability in majejahitan but they could teach people who want to learn it.

Besides, this festival also invited rindik players to perform. They had no booth but they sat down on the sidewalk and played that bamboo instrument continually. It looked so hard and tired to play it because their hands moved very quickly to get right tones. But they did not say so. Even they would play this bamboo to accompany Joged dancer on the evening.

Joged was one of many performances in this festival. Besides Balinese traditional arts, there were also band performance, DJ performance and many more.

The proudest thing of this festival was 10% of total selling will be donated to the charity program. This is good since there are a lot of people who need help. Independence Day should be celebrated like this, not only entertain people but help others at once.

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