KL to get preview of Rainforest Festival

Preview shows will be held in Kuala Lumpur and here to give music lovers a taste of the annual Rainforest World Music Festival, which kicks off at the Sarawak Cultural Village near here on July 11.
Sheldon Blackman and The Love Circle from Trinidad and Tobago and local band Akasha will perform in the first preview show at Borneo Rainforest Cafe in the federal capital on Saturday.
Organiser Sarawak Tourism Board chief executive officer Gracie Geikie said the Sheldon Blackman band would join three other groups - Pinikpikan (Philippines) and two local groups - Kani'd and Tuku Kame - for the three preview shows, begining 7pm, in the city.
She said children with special needs would be entertained at the amphitheatre adjacent to the Sarawak Club on July 8.
Two similar shows will take place the next day at the newly-opened shopping malls - The Spring and Boulevard.
State Assistant Minister for Tourism Hamden Ahmad said the nightly concert would showcase 17 international and local groups picked from some 450 musical groups which had offered to perform in the world renowned Rainforest Music Festival.
Geikie said last year's festival attracted some 22,000 music lovers, 59.4% of whom were foreigners, in addition to Malaysians from the peninsula as well as Sabahans.
''We are targeting a maximium crowd of 24,000 this year,'' she told reporters Thursday at the launch of the preview shows by Hamden at his office at Bangunan Baitulmakmur.
She said some 5,000 festival tickets had so far been sold online to non-Sarawakians. The one-day ticket is priced at RM90 (adult) and RM45 (children aged between three and 12 years). The three-day pass is sold for RM250 and RM100 respectively.
Geikie said Tourism Malaysia would bring in some 110 foreign tour operators and journalists for the event.
Due to rising fuel and food costs, she said about RM1.9mil would be needed to host this year's festival, up from RM1.6mil last year.
State Tourism Minister Datuk Wong Soon Koh has written to the federal Tourism Ministry for a grant to organise the event, which won the PATA (Pacific Asia travel Association) top award in 2006.
Geikie said two fringe events - the Rainfroest World Craft Bazaar and Folk Art Forum - would be introduced this year.
The craft bazaar from July 9 to 15 will feature over 100 exhibitors from countries including India, South Korea, Japan, Canada, Indonesia and Malaysia.
Local and foreign artistes from Singapore and Indonesia would give talks and display their works at the forum from July 10 to 13.