Friday, October 08, 2010

Sarawak to stage new Rainforest International Rock Festival next year

SARAWAK will host another international musical event called “Rainforest International Rock Festival” or RIRF to be staged in Miri, sometime in October next year.

The event, which would uphold the “rainforest” branding will be an improvised ambitious version of the current “Tree House Rock Concert” held annually at the Borneo Tropical Rainforest Resort (BTRR), about 35km from Miri along the Miri-Bintulu road.

The Tree House Rock Concert which would be held on Oct 9 this year is popular, especially among Brunei expatriates community. Two Bruneian rock bands, “Candolah” and “ASEAM Groove” will be performing at this year’s event.

The inaugural RIRF next year will be jointly organised by Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) and (BTRR).

STB chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Rashid Khan said the change of name from Tree House Rock Concert to Rainforest International Rock Festival was part of a re-branding exercise to further popularise the concert.

He said BTRR had sought STB’s advise on how best to make its current Tree House Rock Concert into a bigger event and a crowd puller to Miri.

“My response is that the name of the event have got to change and that’s why from next year onwards we are calling it as Rainforest International Rock Festival,” he added.

“Sarawak must own that Rainforest brand,’’ he said adding that Sarawak is a niche tourists destination and choosing the right brand name was crucial.

Abdul Rashid said “The RIRF will be STB’s first jointly organised event with a private sector”.

He said BTRR’s request was timely as STB current business plan was to engage with interested tourism stakeholders to organise tourism related activities.

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