“We really want everyone to be able to benefit from the two-day festival,” said Joe Hasham, who is the Artistic Director of the Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre (KLPAC) and YSDAF.
The festival, scheduled for Aug 20-21, is themed “Arts Education + The Future” and will kick off with a host of special highlights by KLPAC.
According to the organisers, the theme was set to counter the notion that the arts is solely “the business of artists”.
“The arts by itself is perceived to be the business of artists, but the idea is that not only them, but us… we too must appreciate it, promote it,” Yayasan Sime Darby chairman Musa Hitam said.
“The arts have been lacking for so many years here in Malaysia. We want to see awareness (of the arts) expand, promote audience performance. The important thing is that it should be a part of Malaysian education. The people should get interested in it.
“It is the broadening of the arts and the culture to the people in the truest sense of the idea,” Musa added.
Hasham concurred with Musa, saying that the aim of this year’s slew of programmes is to both entertain the audience and elevate national awareness of the arts.
“We are introducing a cluster of fresh new programmes to further elevate YSDAF to a new level. Not just to entertain our audience, but also to bring awareness of the importance of arts education in schools and institutions,” Hasham said.
KLPAC theatre producer Faridah Merican noted that the true measure of success for the arts is when the arts become an active form of entertainment for the public.
“We have waited a really long time for the arts to be recognised in the country. We are about to be 50-60 years old, which is kind of young if you look at the industry,” Faridah said.
“When you get the recognition that the arts require assistance to develop, that is when we know the people will slowly understand that this is a very important aspect of our lives.
“It is not just a passive form of entertainment, it is active, and it reaches out to the people. That is what success of the country’s arts means.”
The festival weekend will kick off with a Walk to the Future Parade in collaboration with leading Malaysian design college Saito College. It will start from the KLPAC grounds and head along Jalan Sultan Azlan Shah (formerly Jalan Ipoh).
The key highlight of the weekend will be the unveiling of two commissioned works by the winners of the YSDAF Pitch Start grant launched last year, namely theatrical groups CubeArt Stage & Performance and the Paras Bunyi Collective.
The festival will also feature the winner of YSDAF’s Future Living design competition by design group P.L.Y., who created an interpretation of a futuristic outdoor pavilion consisting of a series of tilted mirrors reflecting the present and the past.
Other activities lined up include a crowdsourced photography exhibition entitled “Then and Now”, a stage dedicated fully to local bands, and the screening of internationally-featured Malaysian movies.
The YSDAF Gala Night will feature performances by legendary 80s pop rock band Alleycats, and local soul artists Dasha Logan and Fynn Jamal.
The night will also feature works by young talents mentored by Harith Iskander, Lee Kok Leong, Tay Cher Siang, Lee Swee Keong and Joseph Gonzales, in the “Master + Murid” mentor-mentee programme launched in May this year to search for new Malaysian talents.