SARAWAK, 22 April 2022: One of Southeast Asia’s longest-running international jazz festivals, the Borneo Jazz festival is back, bringing musicians of diverse cultural backgrounds together to celebrate jazz music and empower the local community.
Themed “Jazz in The Jungle”, the Borneo Jazz festival will be held from 24 to 26 June 2022, adopting a hybrid format to reach out to the greater jazz-loving community worldwide.
The physical concert will take place at Coco Cabana in Miri, while viewers will also be able to Livestream one-hour blocks of the performances wherever they are located.
The musical content will be curated by No Black Tie Presents, Malaysia’s foremost jazz promoter. Music lovers can expect an
eclectic mix of jazz musicians, rappers and DJs from various countries, including the USA, Hungary, Singapore, France, and Malaysia, lighting up the Borneo Jazz stage to celebrate cultural diversity.
Details of the annual event were confirmed on Wednesday by Yang Berhormat Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, the Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts along with Yang Berhormat Datuk Sebastian Ting Chew Yew, Deputy Minister of Tourism Sarawak, Yang Berhormat Dennis Ngau, Chairman of Sarawak Tourism Board, Hii Chang Kee, Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak, Puan Sharzede Datu Haji Salleh Askor, Chief Executive Officer of Sarawak Tourism Board, Captain Nasaruddin A Bakar, Chief Operating Officer of MASwings representing Malaysia Aviation Group and Stephanie Kuan representing artistic director No Black Tie Presents.
The Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts said: “With the theme “Jazz in the Jungle”, this year’s Borneo Jazz is about rejuvenating the jazz scene while being surrounded by the wonders of nature that are in abundance in Miri, the gateway to Northern Sarawak. As we all know, artists and musicians have all been affected by the lockdowns, so the Borneo Jazz festival serves as the perfect platform to rejuvenate, rediscover, rekindle, and rebuild the interrupted jazz connection for the past two years.
“The hybrid concert is the best way to go this year based on the positive response we have received from the Borneo Jazz Virtual Experience last year in 2021. The Borneo Jazz Virtual Experience 2021 three-day journey garnered 244,637 online viewers from 43 countries. We hope to have a wider outreach to international audiences encompassing more countries this year.”
Sarawak Tourism Board Chief Executive Officer Puan Sharzede Datu Haji Salleh Askor said: “We are pleased to once again bring music lovers in Malaysia and around the world physically back to the Borneo Jazz festival in Miri, the northern gateway of Sarawak.”
“Last year, the music festival reached a broader audience given the virtual format, and we hope to continue this traction once again this year. Our goal is to provide our Sarawakian artists with an even bigger platform for their artistry to be recognised around the world.”
The announcement was followed by the unveiling of Sarawak Tourism’s ‘More to Discover’ livery on three MASwings ATR 72-500 aircraft as part of the one-year collaboration with the Sarawak Tourism Board. The interior of the aircraft is also painted with visuals of Sarawak’s tourist attractions such as events, food and culture and ecotourism destinations.
Building up sustainable musical tourism in Sarawak
“Our focus apart from positioning Borneo Jazz as a top-notch Jazz Festival in the region is to empower and raise cultural awareness through Borneo Jazz Talent Search and Borneo Jazz FAB LAB platform, providing performance and networking opportunities, giving awards and recognition, as we strongly believe in promoting sustainability in the growth of arts & culture within the local community, and the importance of cultural exchange in fostering greater understanding between people of different cultural backgrounds which aligns with the STB’s and the state’s sustainable journey,” said Borneo Jazz festival 2022 artistic director Evelyn Hii.
Borneo Jazz will feature performances by the winners of the nationwide Borneo Jazz Talent Search launched on 1 April for DJ, Jazz and Open categories. Together with Borneo Jazz Festival FAB Lab 2022, aspiring musicians will be given a chance to grow their musical talent alongside renowned local and international artists while also contributing to the growth of Miri as the region’s jazz centre.
Additional activities around the Borneo Jazz festival will be the Eco Drum and Eco-Art projects; both aimed to raise awareness towards creating a more eco-friendly and sustainable city.
Bundled deals and savings with Malaysia Airlines
To drive visitors and inbound traffic to Sarawak, Malaysia Airlines, the national carrier under Malaysia Aviation Group (MAG), has been named the official airline partner of the Borneo Jazz Music Festival.
As the official airline partner for the Borneo Jazz festival, Malaysia Airlines and supported by its sister company Firefly will offer attractive deals of up to 15% discount on flights from Peninsular Malaysia, London, Australia and some ASEAN destinations to cities in Sarawak. Firefly will fly passengers from Penang to Kuching via its jet operations.
To enjoy the discount, music lovers joining the Borneo Jazz festival must insert a unique promo code (BORNEO22) between 25 April 2022 and 15 May 2022 for travels between 1 and 30 June 2022 to enjoy significant savings. These deals are available exclusively for those who purchase the normal pass to the Borneo Jazz festival through the airline’s respective websites.
Borneo Jazz ticket prices
Jazz music lovers can start purchasing tickets for BJ starting 22 April 2022 from the website jazzborneo.com. For the public category, 1 Day Pass is priced at RM128 per ticket, 2 Day Pass is RM228 per ticket, and 3 Day Pass is RM338 per ticket.
As for students and senior citizens, 1 Day Pass is priced at RM88 per ticket, 2 Day Pass is RM128 per ticket, and 3 Day Pass is RM188 per ticket.
For those who want to enjoy BJ virtually, tickets are priced at RM25 per one-hour block. For more information on the Borneo Jazz festival 2022, log on to BJ’s official website at jazzborneo.com.
Karim also unveiled the “Sarawak More to Discover” display on MASwings’ luggage compartment for the ATR 72-500 aircraft. Sarawak’s visibility, which can be seen in three aircraft, showcases elements of the five pillars of Sarawak tourism – Culture, Nature, Adventure, Food and Festival (CANFF).
For more information visit: https://sarawaktourism.com/
(Your Stories: Sarawak Tourism Board)
