October is a full month of sights and sounds, as the Kuta Karnival, First Asian Beach Games, Ubud Readers Writers Festival, and Balinale Film Festival take place throughout the month. October is a full month of action, sights and sounds. Here we list some of the major events that will color the month, such as the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, the First Asian Beach Games, the fifth annual Kuta Karnival, and the newly conceived Balinale Film Festival, all interweaved throughout the month.

The 2008 Ubud Writers & Readers Festival
Which takes place from October 14-19. This annual celebration of international and Asian literature is centered in Ubud. The Festival comprises four days of panel sessions in which writers, journalists and academics discuss issues of society, religion, politics and culture from a literary perspective, and also offers a wide range of writing related workshops.

Several feature events also take place over the four days including the popular Literary Lunches and Dinners. These intimate events, held in some of the most stunning resorts in the Ubud area, gives one a chance to hear some of the Festival’s ‘star’ writers talk in depth about their lives and their work. Evening book launches are also a chance to meet and mingle with authors and get a signed copy of some of the best new fiction, non-fiction, poetry and plays in the region.

Book launches scheduled include the Southeast Asian launch of the four volumes of the Donald Friend Diaries that span all of Friend’s adult life and have been acclaimed as a major literary masterwork. The book launches, as with the other programs, are held in various venues. Donald Friend’s book launch is to take place at the Alila Ubud on Sunday, October 19 from 7 p.m. For further information and updated programs and schedules contact the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival Team at the Indus Restaurant on Jalan Raya Sanggingan in Ubud at (0361) 780-8932, or check online at www.ubudwritersfestival.com.

The first Asian Beach Games
Start on October 18 thru 26. An expected 45 participating nations and 10,000 athletes and officials are to take part in the 17 beach sports events. The sports include Beach Handball, Beach Kabaddi, Beach Pencaksilat, Beach Sepaktakraw, Beach Soccer, Beach Volleyball, Beach Wrestling, Body Building, Dragon Boat racing, Jet Ski competitions, Marathon Swimming, Paragliding, Sailing, Surfing, Triathlon, Windsurfing and Woodball - all to take place in various venues in Sanur, Nusa Dua, the southern Bukit peninsula and Kuta, with its focus on its Sanur cluster venue.

The Asian Beach Games is a multi-sport event to be held every two years among athletes representing countries from Asia. Bail has the honor to host the first, with its opening ceremony to take place at the Garuda Wisnu Kencana Cultural Park.

In 2010 the 2nd Asian Beach Games will be held in Muscat, Oman and the 3rd Asian Beach Games will be held in Haiyang, China in 2012. In the 25th Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) General Assembly in Doha on December 2, 2006, the Council selected Boracay Island in the Philippines as host of the 2014 Asian Beach Games. The games will fall on the same year as the 17th Asian Games. The event might fall on May 2014, summer season in the Philippines, and 60 years after the 1954 Asian Games. The 15th President of the Philippines (to be inaugurated on June 30, 2010) is expected to open the event.

Ms. Rita Subowo, KONI (Indonesia’s Sporting Body) Chairman, stated that the medal awarding ceremony will be organized during the Culture Exhibition Night, on the three clusters and with live television coverage.
The organizing committee has planned to organize Culture Exhibition Nights every evening during the Games, with dances and other cultural performances. The exhibition is expected to gather more crowds in Bali and to build more hype for the Games.
For further information and updates contact the Bali Asian Beach Games Organizing Committee (BABGOC) secretariat located at Sector at the Bali Beach Golf Course in Sanur, (0361) 283-011 or refer to their website at www.bali2008.com

The Kuta Karnival
On October 18-26. Bali’s annual international event is organized by the people of Kuta Beach. The head of the Community Development Institution of Kuta, Graha Wicaksana, recently announced the return of the Karnival, which was initially established and organized in response to the terrorist blast that hit Legian in October 2002, and brought such a negative impact to the whole island and international community. After major cleansing ceremonies and establishing a memorial for the lost lives, the people of Kuta decided to continuously rebuild the image of the island and look forward to a brighter future by restoring Bali’s image.

The event marks Kuta’s community commitment and thus the tagline of “A Celebration of Life” was established. The nine-day-long Kuta Karnival consists of traditional art performances such as sunset dances, sports on the beach and in the water for young and old, plus rows of culinary displays along the one kilometre stretch of sandy beach.

An adjoining Bali Food Festival 2008 was also announced and will take place from October 25-26. Last year the side event attracted over 50,000 people over two days. This year over 60,000 visitors are expected to flock the stalls once again. Along with the food stalls also to be featured are live stage performances, DJ chill out sessions, children’s playgrounds, and local and international bands.

For further information contact Lembaga Pemberdayaan Masyarakat Kuta, Mr. I Nyoman Graha Wicaksana on (62) 081- 557-522-22, or the Kuta Small Business Association, Mr. Made Supatra Karang (62) 081-239-666-67. As this goes to press, the website, www.kutakarnival.com, is yet to be updated.

Bali International Film Festival (Balinale) 2008
Will be showcasing new independent movies made by Indonesian film makers and award-winning artists, spanning over ten days from October 21-31. The organizers plan to screen more than 50 feature films, documentaries, short and classic movies.

Last year, still in its conceptual stage, it was called the Bali Taksu Film Festival, and this year it has been renamed the Balinale International Film Festival.The previous months have seen fundraising events and dinners, namely at the Four Seasons Resort in Jimbaran where over 100 audience members were treated to the first-ever public screening of Charlie Chaplin’s 1932 visit to Bali, which helped raise more than Rp 40 million (US$4,395) for a film workshop at the upcoming Balinale. Bali’s dance prodigy, Nyoman Sura, entertained the audience with a theatrical rendition of Chaplin’s Keystone Cops - a silent film depicting the efforts of a group of incompetent policemen - that played off Charlie’s comedic style. The foundation held another sumptuous evening of cocktails, dinner, entertainment and fun weeks later at the Ritz Carlton Bali Resort and Spa.

This year’s program includes a film workshop for teenagers as part of the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, with film workshops, seminars and discussions by award-winning Balinese filmmaker Ananta Wijaya, for teenagers from October 10-17. The purpose of the workshop is to give young Balinese a hands-on introduction to the world of film, as they learn the entire film-making process. The resulting short films, showcasing the Balinese philosophy Tri Hita Karana, will be shown during both festivals.

A full program of workshops, seminars and discussions by visiting international filmmakers is to be held during the festival. It will be open to the public and suited to aspiring film-makers and film enthusiasts, offering them the chance to learn from the experience of these internationally acclaimed script-writers, directors and producers.

The regent of Badung, Anak Agung Gde Agung, has wholeheartedly endorsed this year’s Balinale film festival. The festival will screen in Denpasar, Nusa Dua, Kuta, Seminyak and Ubud. For more information on the festival or volunteer roles contact Sarita Newson at (0361) 287-816 or log on to www.balinale.com.

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