DIVERSECITY 2015- KUALA LUMPUR INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL

1 September 2015 – 4 October 2015

Second from left : Curator of Music Michael Veerapen, Curator of Comedy Harith Iskander, Festival Director Datin Sunita Rajakumar, Mayor of KL, Curator of Dance Datuk Ramli Ibrahim & Curator of Traditional Edin Khoo

150,000 tickets for a month long event of exciting activities on such a large scale across 20 venues in vibrant Kuala Lumpur add colour to the multi-genre festival – namely: comedy, music, traditional, dance and literature. 

A huge range of performances with artists from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Japan and Korea promise a memorable experience for everyone.

With support from the Prime Minister of Malaysia, The Mayor and City Hall, the Department of Culture, Tourism Malaysia and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, Festival Director Sunita Rajakumar announced the launch of this first ever Kuala Lumpur International Arts Festival to be held throughout Kuala Lumpur during the month of September 2015.

Bulk ticket sales will commence by June 2015 and early-bird tickets will be available in July 2015. The public can sign up for the festival newsletter to be updated with the important dates of the event. The details of the programme can be found in the flyer. Organizers reserves the right 
to make necessary changes without further notice.

Kuala Lumpur is likely the only city in the world which can stage this scale of genuine and authentic Asian-originarts and cultural performances such as this, especially in the official Year of Festivals 2015 and when Malaysia is the Chair of the ASEAN Secretariat.

“This will be the first large-scale landmark arts festival to be held in Kuala Lumpur: initiated a year ago by famous Malaysian “greats” in the performing arts and in close collaboration with government-linked institutions and independent arts organisations, “said Sunita.

“We are pleased that the program showcases the extraordinary diversity of our nation: not just racial diversity but also, the traditional and some contemporary interpretations of traditional performances, foreign and local artists as well as government-linked and private arts organisations, “she added.

In addition, throughout the month, there will be workshops and artist discussions where performers and audience can meet. More information is available on the website www.diversecity.my, sign up for our newsletters. The full program will be announced in June 2015. Early-bird tickets will be available for sale in August 2015.

COMEDY
Curated by Harith Iskander and running for a week starting on Malaysia Day 16 September 2015, you don’t want to miss this comedy festival of at least 60 local and regional comedians which promises to be one of the most significant comedy festivals in the world.

Headlined by HarithIskandar himself whose most recent show was labelled “the biggest stand-up comedy show in Asia” and top names from comedy powerhouses like the  United States (Paul Ogata, Tom Rhodes); United Kingdom (Gina Yeshere, Stephen Grant); and Australia (Hung Lee).

Comedians from Philippines, India, Indonesia, Singapore, South Africa, Malawi, Korea and Japan as well as a host of comedians from Malaysia will be combining to make the KLICFest a TRULY international comedy festival.


MUSIC
This genre is curated by Michael Veerapen, one of Asia’s foremost jazz musicians. For the inaugural year of this festival, he will be producing unforgettable weekends of large-scale music concerts of:

-          Top local pop artists and ASEAN stars – including ZainalAbidin, Marcel Siaahan, Dasha Logan, Gerard Singh and DatukKhatijah Ibrahim - performing with the full National Symphony Orchestra at DataranMerdeka on 27 September 2015;

-          Entire evenings of ASEAN jazz (KohMr.Saxman, The Steve McQueens, IndraLemana, Steve Nanda group) and percussion (Steve Thornton, Tribal Tides, Binh Minh, Hands Percussion, Akasha) at the Lake Gardens on 19-20 September 2015;

-          Legendary rock bands – Wings, Hujan, Iklim - performing live at the iconic Stadium Negara on 12 September 2015.

-          A month packed with independent bands and highly talented musicians at the top jazz clubs in Kuala Lumpur throughout September 2015.


TRADITIONAL 
Pusaka’s ambitious line-up for this inaugural Festival includes an extraordinary 100-man DikirBarat performance by a chorus of young clappers and first-ever concerts in Malaysia by:

-          AlimQasimov, the most esteemed and celebrated traditional Mugham singer of Azerbaijan;

-          Mehr Ali and Sher Ali, world-renowned grand masters of the Qawwali tradition of Pakistan; 

-          legendary dance company, Shwe Mann Thabin of Myanmar with Burmese dance master, Shwe Mann U Win Maung, flying in all the way from New York City to perform ZatPwe, a stylized dance theatre rarely seen outside its native land; and

-          the much-celebrated and highly distinctive Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre from Vietnam.

There will be a special KudaKepang performance that interweaves photographic imagery of KudaKepang by photographer Cheryl Hoffmann; an authentic Mak Yong performance that showcases the granddaughters of the legendary Mak Yongprimadonna, CheNing; and a WayangKulit performance in tribute of the legendary TokDalangDollahBajuMerah of Kelantan to mark the 10th Anniversary of his passing and many other performances.

DANCE
Curated by Datuk Ramli Ibrahim who has commissioned 12 ground-breaking new dance theatre productions which showcase new trends in choreography in contemporary modern and traditional dance genres, the ambitious line-up in this genre will include:

A new Odissi dance production ‘Ganjam’ by DtkRamli’s Sutra Foundation.

“The Tree”, a creation by the highly talented co-artistic directors Anthony Meh and Aman Yap of Dua Space (which has toured 11 countries).

“Pak PandirYo” an electrifying, creative and edgy production choreographed by Alam, dance phenomenon and champion of the first Malaysian ‘So You Think You Can Dance’. Alam uses hip-hop, breakdance, robotic techniques, bar patterns and waacking routines with a Malaysian twist, to tell an urban version of Pak Pandir – the clown-sidekick of popular Malay folk stories.

LITERATURE
The ASEAN-based literature genre of this Festival will be one of the most intriguing ever held in Malaysia: featuring prominent poets, performing artists from shadow play, monologists, authors and speakers from Malaysia and neighbouring countries such as SEA Write winners.

There will also be a joint performance of Kelantanese Shadow Play and Edo Ito AyatsuriNingyo, a traditional Japanese puppet performance.

There will be a special appearance of Wak Khalid to perform his monologue along with ASEAN monologists from Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia and Thailand such as Khalid Salleh, Mr Asia RamliPrapanca, Mr ZefriAriff and Ms Noor Hasnah Adam.