BY GABRIEL LIHAN AND ELLISIA TINGASS
KUCHING: The annual Pesta Saratok 2023 returns with the Regatta Kalaka among its highlights.
Kalaka assemblyman Mohammad Duri said the festival includes Labang Bike Week, Cultural Night, Saratok Kitchen, Saratok Run Challenge and the popular Regatta Kalaka.
This year’s month-long festival which begins on July 1 will be held at the Saratok market with around 200 stalls selling handicraft products and popular local food and beverages.
Mohammad Duri said Pesta Saratok 2023 will exciting this time around as it will invite surrounding districts to attend the annual event.
“Saratok is near several districts such as Sarikei, and towns like Selalang and Sibu.
“Since Saratok is in the southern zone of Sarawak, it will certainly attract the public,” he told reporters at a press conference at Baitulmakmur Building II here today.
Regatta Kalaka, which is the festival’s highlight, is expected to attract 5,000 people where boat racers compete from all over Sarawak for the ‘Raja Sungai’ crown and a cash prize of RM15,000.
“In the past, after the harvesting period, people would want to enjoy and witness the regatta and this is often the attraction of Pesta Saratok.
“Many tourists have come to Pesta Saratok, we have had tourists from Germany as well,” Mohammad Duri said.
Meanwhile, he said the organisers of ‘Pesta Saratok’ are proposing that the festival be included in the state’s tourism calendar.
Also present at the press conference were Krian assemblyman Friday Belik, and Saratok district officer and chairperson of the festival’s organising committee Haron Mahidi.
