The 2014 Jakarta Lantern Festival (JLF) is held at Lapangan Banteng, Central Jakarta, starting last night (12/12) until Sunday (12/14). Numerous local lantern artists from Jakarta, Malang, and Yogyakarta participated in this event, as well Chinese lantern artists who will display giant dragon-shaped lanterns.

JLF is held to jack up the attractiveness of tourism and culture attractions as well as creative arts development

"JLF is held to jack up the attractiveness of tourism and culture attractions as well as creative arts development. The visitors will not only be presented with thousands of lanterns light party, but also a variety of entertainments such as Kroncong Tugu and Gambang Kromong music as well as dance from China that performed by 1,000-face dancers. This event is free of charge,” stated Prisila, Public Relation officer of Agate Selaras Indonesia as the event organizer, Friday (12/12).

“There will be 2,800 lanterns in various sizes, including 46 giant lanterns in the shape of dragon, ondel-ondel (giant effigies), Taj Mahal, and many other characters,” added Head of Jakarta Tourism and Culture Department, Arie Budhiman.

According to Budhiman, this kind of festival is also held in major cities in the world. Thus, Jakarta as the capital city of the state and also a metropolitan city wants to align its position with those world’s major cities.

“Those cities are Seoul Lantern Festival, Yuan Xia Festival, Auckland Chinese Lantern Festival in New Zealand, Spring Lantern Festival in Hong Kong, etc. Hence, Jakarta Tourism and Culture Department needs to create popular creative events by still bringing forward local culture as the basic development of creativity in the works of lantern art,” he uttered.