JAKARTA: Indonesia holds the Guinness World Record for the largest angklung musical performance that involved 15,110 participants and was held at Gelora Bung Karno (GBK) Main Stadium, Jakarta, on Saturday evening (Aug 5), reported ANTARA news agency.
The preparation for the performance has been carried out since October 2022 with the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology.
“Angklung is Indonesia’s cultural heritage that has been recognised by UNESCO since 2010 and teaches good values of character education that must be preserved and passed on to the next generation,” the ministry’s Director of Film, Music, and Media Ahmad Mahendra said here on Sunday.
Mahendra said his side helped provide 20,060 angklung units and distributed them to 381 angklung groups with 40 members each.
The ministry partnered with the Saung Angklung Udjo (SAU) art centre for the performance, where the two planned the musical concept and provided angklung training for all participants.
“In addition to being trained directly by the SAU team, we involved 182 supervisors to accompany the independent training of each group,” he said.
The supervisors, he said, were music and art teachers and angklung artistes from studios or communities.
The participants of the largest angklung performance in the world came from various circles, such as the Organisation for Solidarity Action for the Onward Indonesia Cabinet Era (OASE KIM), high schools, and schools of state apparatus.
Representatives of ministries and agencies, wives of state apparatus, and the Family Welfare Empowerment (PKK) Mobilization Team also took part in the performance.
President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and Vice President Ma’ruf Amin also watched the event.
“This performance is expected to create momentum to foster the younger generation’s love for the angklung musical instrument,” Mahendra said. – BERNAMA -ANTARA
