Kuching Waterfront Jazz Festival 2.0 returns on Sept 28-29

June 26, 2018

Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth & Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Hamzah (second from left) unveils the event poster featuring the performing artist. With him are (from left) SEDC chairman Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Husain, SEDC general manager Soedirman Aini, and Festival advisor Gracie Geikie.

KUCHING, June 26: Following the astounding success of its inaugural edition last year, Kuching Waterfront Jazz Festival (KWJF) will be returning on Sept 28-29 this year at The Waterfront, Grand Margherita Hotel.

The jazz festival will feature artistes and bands from Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, United Kingdom, Australia, USA and Portugal.

Sarawakian-born international concert pianist Jolynn Chin will be making a return to this year’s festival. Other performing artists include Sarawakian songstress Dayang Nurfaizah, Blues Gang (Malaysia), Tompi (Indonesia) and Carmen Souza (UK/Portugal).

The full festival line-up is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, who launched the festival today, spoke fondly of the festival as it helped Kuching to become ‘a city with a soul’.

“Kuching is much more interesting now. We are turning old DUN (State Legislative Assembly building) into a centre of performing arts, the musical fountain will be ready (during KWJF), the Museum campus is taking shape and we need performances like this (KWJF) to make Kuching alive,” he told a press conference at Grand Margerita Hotel which is also organising and hosting the event.

Abdul Karim hoped the festival this year would be even better and record higher numbers of festival goers.

This year, a Jazz Band Search will be held on July 28 at the Godown Amphitheater at Kuching Waterfront. The winner of the competition will be the opening act for KWJF 2018. The application process will be available soon and further announcements of the competition will be posted on KWJF2018’s Facebook page.

In addition, workshops will be conducted on both afternoons of the two-day event as the fringe event of KWJF, elevating the experience for festival goers this year.

The festival last year garnered close to 4,000 festival goers, surpassing the anticipated 3,000 mark. Acclaimed jazz musicians and bands from all over the region, incuding Sheila Majid (Malaysia), Ernie Watts (USA), Kunto Aji (Indonesia) and Jeremy Monteiro (Singapore) graced the stage that overlooked the scenic Kuching Waterfront.

For more information about festival programme, line-up, tour packages, hotel packages and ticket purchase, visit www.kuchingwaterfrontjazz.com and its Facebook and Instagram page. — DayakDaily