GEORGE TOWN FESTIVAL 2019 PRESS CONFERENCE
SPEECH BY YAB CHOW KON YEOW
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG
GEORGE TOWN FESTIVAL 2019 PRESS CONFERENCE
Good day, first of all, I would like to thank YB Yeoh for kicking off today’s press conference. I am very excited about what’s coming up ahead for the Festival. I would also like to extend a warm welcome to all of you who have made an effort to come here.
The arts scene in Penang has experienced a remarkable growth and advancement, especially since George Town was honoured with the UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2008. Gradually over the years, George Town has become a prime 'real estate' for artists everywhere, with the country's homegrown and international artists wanting to leave their legacies on the old walls and five-foot ways of this heritage enclave.
Art events, forums and exhibitions were then added to the state's calendar of events to encourage the exchange of voices and ideas for art enthusiasts and creative minds. But Penang's most notable success story is George Town Festival. The Festival has been instrumental in positioning the state as Asia's arts and culture hub. Inaugurated in 2010 to celebrate the city's new UNESCO Heritage Site status, the Festival has drawn thousands of visitors each year to Penang and is quickly becoming one of Asia's leading arts events.
In 2012, the Festival single-handedly catapulted a then-unknown Lithuanian street artist by the name of Ernest Zacharevic to international recognition, by commissioning Zacharevic to create large-scale murals. Today, Zacharevic's recognisable murals have become one of the city's most iconic draws and a paradise for Instagrammers taking selfies.
As the Festival grew from strength to strength, renowned media began to take notice such as the International New York Times, South China Morning Post, Al-Jazeera, Nikkei Asian Review, Advertising Marketing, Asean Travel, CNN Travel and more. International New York Times reviewed GTF as a 'festival growing into a major Asian arts event' while CNN Travel headlined GTF as 'Best of Penang rolled up in one big festival'. The Guardian, a British daily newspaper, cited the Festival as 'one of southeast Asia's most exciting celebrations of culture, heritage and community'.
Earlier, YB Yeoh has walked you through about what to expect from the upcoming Festival. I would also like to point out that the Festival this year is different from the previous years as it is embracing the theme 'A Festival for Everyone'. It means that we are curating the Festival for people from all walks of life, from the festival goers, to the arts communities and the general public. For the festival goers who are looking for artistic indulgence can do so at the Festival’s 14 specially curated ticketed shows covering dance, theatre, forum, talk, fashion, music, comedy and film. For the arts communities with keener interests for in-depth conversations about arts and branding, there are symposiums such as the Great New World - From Free Port to World Heritage Site and Isle to Isle: Design Forum to attend. For the general public, the three highlighted programmes are something to look forward to. With ballerinas on stilts and jaw-dropping projection mapping in When Night Falls, the artistic frenzy happenings in Art in the City and the enormous art bash in The Extravaganza, the Festival will be an instagrammable event for everyone so please attend as many of the events as you can.
Through our community engagement programmes such as Macam Macam Macallum and Macam Macam Berapit, we will be taking the Festival out from traditional arts venues and into other community spaces, hence exposing new arts and cultural experiences to communities who might otherwise not engage with the Festival, as part of promoting an attitude that the arts are for everyone. This is particularly pertinent in a community which may perceive the arts to be elitist. In other words, we are delivering the Festival straight to the doorsteps for the people in Macallum Street Ghaut and Berapit. This is something that I genuinely look forward to and encourage. Hopefully, we will see more community engagement programmes like this in future.
Thank you.