ILMU Festival Brings Together Australian and Indonesian Hip Hop Artists

The Australian Embassy in Jakarta is proud to present the ILMU Festival, a two day hip hop and electronic music festival in Yogyakarta from 17-19 September 2010. The event will present unique collaborations between Australia and Indonesia’s most talented young artists and aims to encourage further engagement and sharing of knowledge through music. It will also kick off the Australian Embassy’s month-long OzFest 2010 in Indonesia from 17 September to 17 October 2010 which will feature Australian cultural talent in the areas of music, dance, literature and puppetry.

The ILMU Festival will feature four well known Australian artists - Urthboy, Ozi Batla, Elgusto and Luke Dubs - all from the hip hop label Elefant Traks, who will perform and give workshops to the local community. Indonesian artists at the festival include Nova Ruth, Jalan Surabaya, Jogja Hip Hop Foundation and Indobeatbox. Australian and Indonesian artists will perform two main gigs - ILMU Hip Hop (18th September) and ILMU Electronic (19th September) at the Jogjakarta National Museum with one special warm-up gig at the SURVIVE!garage artspace on 17 September 2010.

Workshops will run concurrently covering independent music business skills, electronic music production, new trends in turntablism and feature a hip hop MC forum which will culminate into an open rap (cipher) session.

During their visit to Indonesia, the Australian artists will also perform in Jakarta with Indonesian World Music ensemble Kunokini at Ruang Rupa artspace on 21 September 2010. They will also conduct a music and English workshop with street children at the Puspita Foundation on 23 September 2010. More information on the ILMU festival, associated workshops and featured artists is available at: http://www.ilmufestival.com/.

The ILMU Festival is organised in conjunction with ASIALINK Performing Arts, The Volcanic Winds Project and Elefant Traks and is being produced by Kate Ben-Tovim and directed by Kaho Cheung (Unkle Ho) and Kristi Monfries. Ben-Tovim and Monfries were both Asialink artists in residence in Indonesia in 2009. Each year the Asialink Residency program sends Australian writers, performers, artists and arts managers to live and work throughout Asia.

The ILMU Festival is funded by the Australian Government through the Australia-Indonesia Institute. More information about the Institute’s programs to support bilateral cooperation and collaboration in the arts and culture is available at www.dfat.gov.au/aii.

Media Enquiries:
Jenny Dee, Counsellor (Public Affairs) tel. (021) 2550 5290 mob. 0811 187 3175