Five Mountain Festival: "art is simple"

this post marks a new phase in this photoblog of mine, just recently i stumbled upon a writing that stated the importance of written information on photographs. visually i often try to put as many information as possible when taking a picture, but sometimes there are things that are not visually visible and sometimes its even more important than the picture itself.

to tell you the truth, i'm a crappy writer. but we all gotta start somewhere, right? so here it goes...

this last few months, i've been extremely bored with the things i usually photograph. i needed something new to photograph, i needed to travel. the decision to finally go to the five mountain festival was a swift one. after receiving money from my previous job, i packed my bags and leave right away. (lesson to be learned: without the proper research, it will be difficult to shoot decently). but with a little extra cost, i had finally arrived at the venue.

the venue was far from what i had expected, there are no giant advertisement banners, no fastfood stals and there was no proper stage or lighting, it was humble. it was perfect.

the 10th five mountain festival was held at DUSUN KERON, DESA KROGOWANAN, KECAMATAN SAWANGAN, KABUPATEN MAGELANG. the name of the festival was derived from the fact that there are five mountains surrounding magelang, mt. merapi, mt. andong, mt. menoreh, mt. merbabu and mt. sumbing.

the stage and sound systems used was simple. the stage was a square field with a bamboo fence surrounding it and the sound system used was far from decent, but for the people enjoying the festival, it was enough.

what i found intrigueing was none of the performers was getting paid for their performance. they only expect that in return, when a similar festival was held in their village, the people performing at the festival would also perform for free.

The crowd showed great enthusiasm, they came from surrounding villages using trucks and pick-ups.

the one thing that all of us cityfolks have to learn is that "art is simple". due to its simplicity, the festival, in my opinion, was the best art and cultural festival i've attended.