Focus Group Discussion with festival organisers. © British Council Indonesia
The abundance of potentials that Yogyakarta has, particularly in the number of national and international festivals, has inspired British Council to organise a programme to support festival managers and city government. The programme – that projected to run in September 2014 – aims to give them a better understanding of how to manage, promote and support high quality cultural festivals as one of the gems of Yogyakarta.
In partnership with Heri Pemad Art Management, British Council invited Yogyakarta festival organisers and government institutions in tourism and culture to take part in a series of knowledge exchange workshop with UK festival managers as facilitators. Through this programme, British Council hopes to give contribution to build a new image of Yogyakarta as “the Festival City” by creating offline and online movements.
As a part of preparing the programme, on June 26 we conducted a Focus Group Discussion (FGD) at Kedai Kebun Forum, Tirtodipuran with 19 Yogyakarta festival organisers. The discussion talked about the current practices of festival management in Yogyakarta as well as its promotion and its connection with government institutions.
Another discussion will be held this July and will invite people from city government, travel and hotel associations, also airports and public railways enterprises.