Over the weekend of the 20 & 21 July the city of Newport will come alive with music, theatre and laughs as The Riverfront Theatre and Arts Centre’s Big Splash returns for its 9th year. Over the festival weekend The Riverfront is transformed into Splashtonbury Family Hub with workshops, performances, acoustic stage and make and take activities for all ages. Who needs Glastonbury when you’ve got Splashtonbury! 

To mark the 70th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of Indonesia and the United Kingdom, this year The Riverfront will also be hosting an Indonesian Multicultural Zone.

This special event will bring enchanting sounds of the gamelans to The Riverfront with spectacular traditional dancing and the opportunity to learn to play traditional musical instruments. Traditional arts and crafts will be on display and visitors can take part in Batik workshops to create something very special to take home with them. There will be storytelling though puppetry, film and Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language), and Indonesian food and coffee will be available.

Sally Evans, Arts Development Officer at The Riverfront commented ’This is such a fantastic addition to Big Splash. We are lucky to have been selected to host this international group, who are travelling especially from Indonesia to perform with us.  They will be here for the whole weekend and we are really excited to experience the various arts forms they have to offer.’

It’s been made possible thanks to Jera Creative Agency through the Indonesia Market Focus at the London Book Fair 2019 Fringe Event program, funded by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture Indonesia and in collaboration with the Culture Caravan program of The Office of Education and Culture Attache, Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, London and the Indonesian Student Communities in Bristol and Wales. 

Professor E. Aminudin Aziz from the Education and Culture Attache said ‘This is a great opportunity to strengthen the ties between Indonesia and Wales through educational and cultural activities. We present various kinds of performances to show the richness as well as the uniqueness of our cultures.’

Cynthia Langeveldt from Jera Creative Agency is also extremely pleased once again to curate and celebrate Indonesia’s multicultural creatives. “It has always been my dream to showcase the incredible collaborations we have developed with Indonesia to Wales and thanks to Newport Live, my dream has been realised. This will undoubtedly be one of the highlights of The Big Splash Event as we celebrate Wales and Indonesia’s multicultural wealth.”