Polewali Mandar International Folk and Art Festival (PIFAF) is an annual event known as a cultural festival. The festival is an annual event of  the Government of Polewali Mandar through the Department of Culture and Tourism. But there was something different this year, because the Department of Culture and Tourism was in cooperation with CIOFF Indonesia under the auspices of UNESCO to held the biggest culture festival, inviting 5 internasional delegates from Russia, Malaysia, Romania, India, and South Korea. Around 128 participants from 5 countries performed their traditional music and dances.
PIFAF took place for five days, started at 29th of August until 5th of September 2016, held in several venues such as Arena Sport Center, Pantai Bahari Polewali, Mampie Beach, Wonomulyo district, and Silk Village. The festival has the theme of “Knowing global culture and preserving local culture”, also held Sandeq Festival, Cultural Festival, and Polewali Mandar Expo 2016. Polewali Mandar District is the first district in West Sulawesi to ever held a cultural and tourism promotional event in international scale. There was no doubt that the West Sulawesi people would be very interested and enthusiastic about the festival.

Prior to the biggest event of Polewali Mandar International Folk and Art Festival (PIFAF), various preparations had been done by the committee from the Department of Culture and Tourism of Polewali Mandar District. One of them is by organizing a dance audition to choose the participants that would perform at the festival. The festival involved a lot of artists from various community and regions in Sulawesi.

    The opening of the festival started with art parade around the HS Mengga Stadion wearing traditional costumes. Besides international delegates, the parade also attended by participants from 16 sub-districts of Polewali Mandar which performed their culture from each district. The opening ceremony attended by Governor of West Sulawesi, Anwar Adnan Saleh with his Vice Governor, Aladin S. Mengga, member of House of District Representatives (DPRD) of West Sulawesi, Samsul Samad, Deputy Police Chief of West Sulawesi, Kombes Pol Drs. Tajuddin MH, Regent of Polewali Mandar, Andi Ibrahim Masdar with his Vice Regent, HM. Natsir Rahmat. The festival also livened by traditional music and dance performances of the participating countries, reforestation at Mampie Beach, gift exchange, and visit to Silk Village.

Collaborations of Indonesian traditional culture and International culture added colors and splendors in this annual event in Polewali Mandar. All elements of society showed enthusiasm by loud applauses and appreciation in each performance venue. Hopefully this event could be a good start and become an event that could be held continuously.






Written by : Ghina Aulia Megaputri
Edited and published by : Gayatri Larasati & Ghina Aulia Megaputri