When Traditional Music Makes a Spectacle at Lake Toba

“Sorry, Bro. It’s been two years since the last event. I even forgot how to attach the rigging. Hehe.”

Asnippet of conversation above is the answer of Bang Ucok, a stage rigging technician, when I asked why it took him so long to build a stage rigging for the Lake Toba Music Festival Road Show in Sidikalang, Dairi Regency, North Sumatra in May 2022.

We fully understand that the policy of Imposing Restrictions towards Community Activities (PPKM) in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the loss of routinely held performing arts activities before the pandemic. According to the records of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbudristek) of August 2021, 65% of national cultural actors lost their jobs which resulted in a decrease in income of up to 70%, and 70% of art spaces and cultural organizations are temporarily closed.

We are seeing the return of performing arts support workers like Bang Ucok in implementing cultural activities since the government eased the PPKM policy in the past year.

This article aims to share the experience gained from implementing the Lake Toba Music Festival 2.0 series of events in May-August 2022 in the Lake Toba Area, North Sumatra. It is one of the best practices in efforts to restore the post-pandemic arts and culture ecosystems through local community involvement.

Community Roles

Rumah Karya Indonesia (RKI), based in North Sumatra, is one community that welcomes the easing of the PPKM policy. This community was born on the premise that Indonesia is rich in ethnic groups. In North Sumatra alone, there are at least dozens of ethnic community groups that have been living in harmony.

These community groups have a good deal of heritage of high-value traditional artworks. Unfortunately, these indigenous artworks are not well-developed. People even take it for granted. As a result, many indigenous art forms are in danger of becoming extinct, including the supporting instruments and the knowledge they have. RKI’s activities focus on the administration and management of traditional music performances, research, publications, and documentation.

Since 2021, RKI has started the implementation of a traditional music festival that aims to build a cultural ecosystem in advancing culture and expediting the economy in the Lake Toba Area through an indigenous music festival. It is also in line with the theme of the G20 Presidency, ‘Recover Together, Recover Stronger.’

Lake Toba Music Festival 2.0 UNESCO has designated lake Toba, or the Toba Caldera, a UNESCO Global Geopark. This area has geological and high-value traditional heritage linkages with the local community, especially cultural heritage. Other regions of Indonesia and even Southeast Asia also have geoparks. Likewise, with Lake Toba, several areas that have geoparks must also have high-value traditional heritage, especially cultural heritage. Because of this similarity, Lake Toba Traditional Music Festival 2.0 invites a network of traditional musicians in the geopark area, both local and national, as well as from abroad.

Lake Toba Music Traditional Festival 2.0 is the brainchild of Rumah Karya Indonesia, where artists from 4 ethnic groups in the Lake Toba Area create a collaborative work with other artists by involving the local community of Lake Toba through music. We organized this activity on the outskirts of Lake Toba, which has a cultural ecosystem potential. This kind of activity brings a positive impact on the community and visitors.

The year 2022 marks the 2nd year of the Lake Toba Traditional Music Festival organization. It is part of the Indonesian Traditional Music Festival themed ‘Suara Danau: Memaknai, Merawat dan Menghidupkan Musik Tradisi’ (The Sound of The Lake: Fathoming, Fostering, and Reviving Traditional Music). We presented these three elements as a festival. The festival encourages us to know the knowledge, learning, and development process, which we must look at as a whole.

Lake Toba Traditional Music Festival 2.0 is the culmination of the activity, a continuation of the previous Eta

Margondang event, which was held in four districts using different concepts. Lake Toba Traditional Music Festival 2.0 is also part of the program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research and Technology in collaboration with Rumah Karya Indonesia for advancing culture, especially for strengthening the Indonesian traditional music ecosystem as a manifestation of the mandate of Law no. 5 of 2017 on the Advancement of Culture.

The highlight of this show is Eta Margondang, presenting young musicians from four ethnic groups around Lake Toba who have practiced and are creating new works they showcase to connoisseurs of traditional music. Eta Margondang also featured a collaboration of 500 flute players living around Lake Toba. Besides Eta Margondang’s performance, there was a performance by a well-known crossgeneration local band. They play a collaboration of traditional and modern music.

Referring to the theme of the G20 Presidency, “Recover Together, Recover Stronger,” efforts to speed up the recovery of the traditional music ecosystem require the support of the community, whose role is to safeguard the socio-cultural conditions of their people.

RKI revives the art of traditional music, a form of cultural practice that ensures the continuity of a sustainable life. This performing arts activity advocated by RKI is also a cultural ritual where people gather, create, and carry out economic activities involving Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs). Traditional music is one of the concrete forms of culture that plays a role in a sustainable life.