The VERY FIRST Year

Alright! I have talk about few popular performers from the RWMF and they are the performers who came back for the 10th anniversary of RWMF. Ya, it was started way way back on year 1997. So, how old were you at that time? Hm! I was only 13 yrs old. Young eh? Okay, lets have a little flash back of their history. I would like to talk about the first 3 years which are 1997, 1998 and 1999. Here will be the 1st year!

The 1st year (1997)

As we knew, the origins of this whole event were created by Randy Raine-Reusch. A little recap again about how he brought this event up. He was in Sarawak recording traditional music for a CD called "Sawaku" which is the music of Sarawak for Pan Records and in this process he had a numbers of meetings with fellow Canadian Robert Basiuk, who was the deputy chief executive officer of the Sarawak Tourist Board.

So, it all started with just 1 topic which is the rapidly dissappearing of local musical traditions and they wanted to recontextualize the music which were some of the no longer practiced headhunting rituals. Then, Randy suggested a festival of traditional music but Robert replied that he had already suggested that idea but there are no response to it. But then surprisingly, Edric Ong which was the president of the Society Atelier Sarawak took up the idea and presented it to the society which then decided to present a modest festival at the Sarawak Cultural Village in Santubong.

So, the mandate of the festival was to promote and preserve the unique cultures of Sarawak which is to have the local artists stand side by side with International artists. Finally, the festival was approved and it is going to happen. At the first year, Randy Raine-Reusch have a comphrehensive plan for the fest which included details ranging from booking the artists to garbage collection and he decided to run the fest for 3 years only.

Randy then oversaw the creation of the 1st festival, with the support of a large number of volunteers, as well as numerous community and govt' agencies. The artist are mainly selected by committee which are the members of the Society Atelier Sarawak with Raine-Reusch in the lead. So, the fest was opened on a Friday night with a number of acts on the main stage and Saturday and Sunday's program feature 4 hrs of workshops on a number of small venues, followed by mainstage events in the evenings. The themes of the fest. range from “Sting Things” to “Songs I Never Sang”.

RANDY WORKED WITH THE "SAPE" MUSICIANS FROM S'WAK

They are more emphasize on the combining of musicians from the longhouse with international artists in which at that time totally amaze the internationals with their skills and ability to improve (It's often for the first time always, right?) The very first year actually was about 1500 people in attendance, so it was very well received, right? Imagine the festival was a hit! It's 1st year artists included groups from Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, as well as many of the diverse indigenous communities of Sarawak, including the Iban, Kenyah, Kayan, Bidayuh, and Melanau peoples. Raine-Reusch performed with his group ASZA at this festival. I guess it was a BLAST, RIGHT? Something really new at that time. Eventually, to compare with today its already 10 years already but it is still a blast and it will be more than a blast year by year goes....

RANDY PLAYING THE CHINESE GU-ZHENG

I will stop here for the 1st year and next will be for the 2nd year....there are few pics posted which is Randy in S'wak. Non of RWMF 1997 pictures able to retrieve. So sorry, friends!
Happy Reading! :D