The Bali Arts Festival in Denpasar is going well and this morning I joined musician Richard Kaal in a gamelan performance. The festival is taking place at the Taman Budaya Cultural Center, admission is free. There various performance areas, large enclosure known as wantilans, offer stadium seating and a chance to get up close to Balinese culture. We saw a gamelan group from Celuk, Gianyar performing some original fusion pieces, with drummers working a rhythm together, followed by the metal gamelan and then the wooden glockenspiel instrument. Kettle drummers would tap a certain note in time with each other, then suddenly the tempo would change and off went the metalophone players again.
Balinese gamelan is known as gong kebyar (orchestra lightening flashes), which differentiates it from the Javanese gamelan, which is a lot more sedate. Photography and video was allowed.
The Bali Arts Festival ends on June 14th 2007, here are the remaining events.
Taman Budaya Cultural Center
Jl. Nusa Indah
Denpasar
