Morotai Festival
Expected at the beginning of August each year03.11. - 04.11.2024
Only established a few years ago, the Morotai Festival has been re-designed in 2019 and extended in scope with the intention of making this remote island region well-known beyond the country’s borders as well as to present the island officially in an appropriate setting as one of the planned ’10 New Balis’. Reflected for the first time in the annual Events Calendar of the Indonesian Minister of Tourism, representing the country’s 100 most important festivals, a further goal of this festival is to showcase the nature and culture of this beautiful island and to attract more international guests in the future.
This festival was also last paused between 2020 and 2023 (not only) due to the pandemic. The Morotai Festival is organised with the aim of promoting one of the prioritised tourism areas, Morotai Island. The series of events includes various events and competitions such as the decorative boat competition, traditional games, a surfing competition and a competition for the best underwater photo. The month of November was chosen this time because a northerly wind blows from the Pacific Ocean during this month and is therefore particularly suitable for the surfing event.
Festival Highlights
Due to the realignment, it remains to be seen how the festival will continue to develop in the future. The focal point of the 2019 event was the re-branding of the island as ‘Land of Stories’ and the introduction of the shark mascot GOMO, Gorango Morotai. Moreover, there was a choreographic masterpiece by the Indonesian choreographer Eko Supriyanto to marvel at, who, accompanied by the traditional local Bamboo Tada music, set in scene Morotai’s WWII history with a total of 2,196 dancers participating, thus breaking the so-called MURI-record of the Museum Rekor Dunia Indonesia.
In addition to various dance performances and performances of traditional music, other highlights included the fishing and rowing competition in which the largest fish and the fastest and most beautifully decorated boats were admired and awarded.