Festival
It was London Malay Festival 2005 earlier today.Unfortunately, there was a nasty accident near Slough that closed the M4 motorway for nearly 6 hours with tailback stretched for about 7 miles. Even when it was finally re-opened at about 2pm, it was running on a single lane... and it took us nearly 3 hours to get to London.
Nevertheless, when we finally reached the Lawrence Hall in Victoria, a couple of Madagascar musicians were on the stage. Soon, Cikgu Ariffin and his Silat group took the stage and received a thunderous reception from the floor. Then it was tarian group, brilliantly choreographed by Encik Khalid (a familiar face for anyone who went to the Visa Section at our Embassy), followed by traditional songs.Then, a special guest Dato' Jimmy Choo OBE picked the lucky winner tickets from the draw box and finally, as always... in the true traditional Malay kenduri spirit... a joget lambak session for everyone.
It was indeed a successful event, and as announced by Art Fadzil in his closing words, 3,000 people came through the door! Well done Phillip/Faizal and the gang. And thanks for pulling together the Malays across the globe for this such a landmark festival.
Hope to see you all again next year.
Unfortunately, I received news that some did travelled far to the Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre in Brickedonbury for the annual Malaysian Carnival only to be greeted by a cancellation notice on its gate. Though many knew about this 'bizzare' cancellation via words of mouth, a few simply assumed that the event to be there as usual as it had always been in previous years. Indeed there was no official announcement of its cancellation.....or any announcement of it to happen.
posted by Atok @ 12:00:00 am
