By Clive Freeman, DPA
Sarawak (Malaysia) : Bands from around the world are gathering in Sarawak for the Rain Forest World Music Festival, which kicks off Friday on the island of Borneo.
This year's festival – the first to take place since the recent huge Live Earth concerts – is the 10th to be held in the Sarawak Cultural Village under the shadow of Mount Santubong.
Organisers have marked the event by inviting bands that helped make the festival famous. Among them are acts from Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Peru, Russia, the US and Britain.
As well as being a major musical occasion, the festival is also important for the attention it focusses on Borneo's rain forests, which have suffered over the years from logging activities and the effects of global warming.
Experts have warned that the loss of the forests in Borneo, which are regarded as a unique ecosystem, would put a huge dent in the global economy of Malaysia and Indonesia.
Timber exports contribute 8 billion dollars annually to the Indonesian economy, and provide 80 per cent of the plywood used in the United States home building industry.
But what better venue to listen to the resounding rhythms of the rain forest than in a living museum dedicated to the preservation of the indigenous cultures on the island of Borneo, say the 2007 festival's organisers.
Only a 45-minute drive from Kuching, the capital of Sarawak, and a stone's throw from the quiet beach resort of Santubong, the beautiful 17-acre Sarawak Cultural Village has inhabited replicas of the traditional dwellings found in interior and coastal areas of Sarawak.
In doing so it helps preserve the architectural traditions of the many different ethnic groups that constitute the population of the Malaysian state of Sarawak, say officials.
In all 20 bands are due to perform at the three-day festival, along with Sarawak musicians, including the Anak Adi' Rurem Kelabit and the Bamboo Band from the Highlands, numbering about 40 musicians.
Mah Meri of the Orang Asli tribe in West Malaysia, famous for their masks and costumes when they played at the festival five years ago, will also be here again.
Music workshops and other activities will be held during the day in the village's replica longhouses where the public sit on mats while listening to rhythms from around the world
At night, concerts will be held on a stage built by a lake.
Returning to Sarawak will be the Black Umbolosi from Zimbabwe, who performed at the 2002 and 2004 events and were a huge success with their acapella harmonies, gumboots and warrior loincloths.
Other performers are England's Doghouse Skiffle Band, the Foghorn Stringband, a bluegrass group from the US, and the majestic throat singers of Tuva, Hunn Huur Tu, who will be teeming up with Russian musicians from Malerija, as they did in 2003.