The fifth BaliSpirit festival has concluded last week. Five days packed with offerings ranging from yoga and dance, to music and holistic medicine workshops, this year’s festival attracted the largest crowds yet in its history. Susan, yoga practitioner from the United States, sums up her experience of the festival: “There is a huge number of workshops, and so many amazing new things to try. But for me, the most important part was to meet so many like-minded people and to connect with the community.”

The international audience that flocked to Ubud to experience the BaliSpirit festival is part of an ever-growing international community of health- and environment-conscious yogis, musicians, and dancers. This year, BaliSpirit attracted more than 1,000 participants from the United States, India, South America, Australia, China, Japan, Western and Eastern Europe, and Africa. John Ogilvie, yoga presenter, festival sponsor and founder of Australia’s Byron Yoga Center, recognizes the galvanizing power of the festival: “There is an international community present at this festival. All of them will take ideas and inspiration from this festival back to their own communities.” In this way, global awareness relating to health and environmental issues grows. Spirituality, as Ogilvie points out, has to be practical. By building an international community, the maxim ‘Think Global, Act Local’ can become a reality.

The general atmosphere of the festival encouraged sharing and community, and presenters as much as the audience enjoyed the many new connections and shared experiences during the festival.  “To me, as a presenter, the festival felt playful and free and because we all join each other’s classes, Michael Hallock, Watsu teacher, explains. “Normally, as a presenter, I would be a ‘special’ person at an event, but here I was one of many. It was really humbling because I saw so much greatness around me, so much talent and creativity. I saw many people in the fullness of their expression. It was very inspiring and humbling.” Presenter John Ogilvie, who says he enjoyed the experience of switching roles from teacher to student when he joined workshops led by his world-renowned peers, shared this feeling.

Bali is an ideal location for the festival – the Balinese are natural yogis, who live their form of yoga on a daily basis. As devout Hindus, they perform offerings and ceremonies on a daily basis, and service to the community is the norm rather than the exception. Kadek Gunarta, co-founder of the festival, asserts, “We Balinese do yoga our whole lives. We do yoga every time we make an offering and every time we go to a temple. We are always trying to lift our consciousness.” It is this constant effort to maintain a connection to the unseen world that makes Bali such a magical and inspiring place for Western visitors. This atmosphere is amplified during the festival, as many workshops encourage participants to look inside, become more conscious, and open their hearts.  Or as self-proclaimed ‘badass’ yoga instructor Cheri Rae, from Peace and Love Yoga, Los Angeles, puts it: “You do yoga to become a better person. If you don’t – get out of my class and go do aerobics!”

In an effort to promote and include local presenters and audiences, this year, several Indonesian presenters added more local flavor to the festival. While the vast majority of yoga presenters were white Westerners, Indonesian presenters such as Jane Chen, Indrawati Widjanarko and Dewi Asmarani were welcome additions to this all-white line-up.  There is still some way to go, however, to make a truly inclusive festival, especially regarding the Indonesian audience. As a positive gesture, the festival offers one day with free access for everyone, and especially Balinese families, with special workshops organized for children, and yoga classes with Balinese village elders, amongst others. There is, however, no adjusted ticket price for Indonesian participants, which is reflected in the under-representation of Indonesians in the audience during the other four days of the festival.

Giving back to the community, as a yogic principle, is a major theme running through the festival, and is inspiring to Westerners who might be craving a deeper sense of community and connection in the materialistic and individualistic West. BaliSpirit festival might just be a small part of the growing movement of people seeking community and holistic lifestyles around the world, but its ripple effect through the inspiration it provides is larger than the festival. According to John Ogilvie, “If we can get enough people doing yoga around the world, it will be a better place” – a simple formula, which recognizes the capacity of the festival to inspire proactive change among its international guests.

One such ripple effect of the festival has been the inspiration it has provided for similar yoga and holistic health festivals that have developed around the world – such as the Namaste Spirit Festival held in Jakarta, the Byron Bay Spirit Festival in Australia and the Hawaii Spirit Festival. Founder and Chairwoman of Namaste Festival in Jakarta, Anita Boentarman, says that she was “inspired by the BaliSpirit Festival.” She further commented, “Yoga is not about competition, it’s about union and working together. We want to work more closely with the BaliSpirit Festival.”

One important aspect of the festival’s mission relates to the environment. BaliSpirit prides itself in its partnership with green organizations such as Bali Cantik Tanpa Plastik, Bali ReGreen and the Environmental Bamboo Foundation. It is also linked to the East Bali Poverty Project and donations collected on Hari Cinta Keluarga day are donated to Ayo! Kita Bicara HIV/AIDS, an NGO created by BaliSpirit to engage the local community in conversations and education about HIV & AIDS.

Pau Castellsague, yoga presenter and founder of the Barcelona Yoga Conference, insisted on the urgency for people to take positive action: “I feel a strong connection to nature here in Bali, it is very inspiring. But what we humans have done to nature is very sad. We suck! It is time to change. And I don’t mean it’s time for the intention to change. It’s too late for intentions. We need to make change happen, now.”

While the festival does take its responsibility for the environment seriously, as is exemplified in their waste recycling program and support of environmental organizations, it isn’t perfect. The presence of plastic spoons, chopsticks made from tropical forest wood, and a huge number of paper cups still mar the image of a fully environmentally friendly festival. The consciousness and will to limit the impact of the festival on the environment, however, is well present, and efforts to manage waste have constantly improved since the festival’s inception five years ago.

Overall, this year’s BaliSpirit festival was a successful and positive event, galvanizing an ever-growing community of people who crave positive change in the world. And besides this grand aspiration, it was also, simply, a lot of fun. With workshops ranging from many different styles of yoga, such as Hatha, Anusara, Yin, Vinyasa Flow, Ashtanga, Acro and Kundalini, and lots of dynamic dance workshops, including Nia, 5 Rhythms, and the hugely popular West African Dance, there were plenty of opportunities for both for self-reflection and growth, as well as for good, plain fun, exhilaration, and booty-shakes! And while the Festival united some of the world’s most experienced yoga instructors, the festival welcomed beginners and the simply curious too.

Yoga is for everyone, and yoga should be fun, as Cheri Rae’s words bring it to the point: “Yoga should feel good.” And this is what this festival was about, most of all – feel good, do good.

When: Saturday, 18 February 2012, 5:00-11:00pm
Where: Lapangan Astina Ubud, Bali
The concert will once again feature a stellar lineup of artists, gathered together to demonstrate their support for continued HIV & AIDS Education in Bali, including: Mr. Botax, Ganjil, Dialog Dini Hari, Nymphea, Kita Art Community (Fire Dance), Ras Muhamad and Kis Band.

AYO! Kita Bicara & AIDS was created by The BaliSpirit Festival to engage the local community—specifically the Balinese youth—in conversations and education about HIV & AIDS at the grassroots level. The program supports teenagers as Agents of Change within Indonesia and the nation’s greatest hope to slow the spread of HIV & AIDS.

Many of these musicians say that the invitations they receive to perform abroad must be turned down because they don’t have any sponsorship. And these are not just unknowns in the music scene; some of these musicians have the demonstrated potential to break into the international music industry. They are spearheading the promotion of Indonesian music.

Without having a chance to build their reputation, the international music scene will not give local artists the chance to perform. It is important to assess the potential of Indonesian music in the International market, which could fill demand through national world music groups. This market is currently represented by groups such as Krakatau, Simak Dialog, Samba Sunda, Gangsadewa, Debu, Jes Gamelan Fusion, Bona Alit, Discus, Svara Semesta, Tropical Transit, Altajaru, Balawan, Toba Ansambel, Sonoseni, DKSB, Ozenk Percussion, Indonesian National Orchestra (INO), and others. These musicians have put dedication into expressing themselves by creatively developing local music elements. This is important to trace, in efforts to develop the national creative industry, which relies on music products.

A few decades ago, the international music industry became interested in the genre known as world music. In the beginning, world music was understood as ethnic music from non-Western countries, or in Indonesia what we know as traditional music.

The first world music to boom on the international market was Latin American music. Latin music at that time stimulated the imagination of jazz musicians in America, so since the beginning this style dominated the world music stages on an international scale.

Latin musicians had the benefit of their geographic location being close to the industry center of world music: the United States. Furthermore, since the beginning, Latin music has created a blend of local music from countries in Latin America, as well as Western music. This makes it easier for musicians from the United States or Europe to develop this style in the context of tonal music expression.

In the 80s came the second wave of the world music trend. This time the genre of choice was traditional African musics. Where Latin music had suddenly caught the attention of the world due to the interest of jazz musicians, African music was the object of interest of pop musicians such as Paul Simon. Peter Gabriel also saw the potential of world music on the international market, and he founded a large-scale world music festival series called WOMAD (World of Music Arts and Dance).

Following that momentum, folk music from Europe also broke into the industry, particularly Celtic music from Ireland. Traditional music from Asia that successfully made an impact in the world music market mainly came from India: Their selfproclaimed ‘heroes of the industry’ included such figures as Ravi Shankar and Zakir Husein. Since the 1960s Indian music was fortunate to gain worldwide recognition because of groups such as The Beatles, which made popularized Indian styles of music.

From Indonesia, gamelan music has become the icon on the international market. No other orchestral tradition, such as gamelan, has managed to break into the world music market. Because of that, gamelan has also gained popularity in universities, within ethnomusicology programs.

Ethnomusicology is a recent discipline that studies ethnic music from around the world. The term world music was actually made popular because of its use in ethnomusicology. Graduates of ethnomusicology are responsible for sharing knowledge of the world music genre through their publications. Many ethnomusicologists are employed at record labels, both in smaller music industry enterprises as well as with industry giants such as Sony Music and Virgin Records.

At the same time as world music and ethnomusicology were gaining popularity, contemporary music from North America became more and more interested in non-Western music. North American composers of the 1960s, especially those from the West Coast, were no longer referencing only European traditions, but instead were looking to Asia and Africa for inspiration. As a result, a new movement in music was born which was called minimalism. Pioneers of this genre include Terry Riley, who studied gamelan and Middle Eastern Music, La Monte Young and Philip Glass, who studied music in India, and Steve Reich, who studied gamelan and African musics. These four people are responsible for the popularity of this genre of contemporary music, which prior to their influence had limited impact within the industry.

World music continued to gain popularity, and by the 1990s it claimed a greater percentage of the music industry market than jazz or classical music, which has had decades and even centuries to develop. In the 1980s, the world music market grew from being undocumented to holding 3 percent of the world market. 10 years later this genre of music held 10 percent of the market.

If, by rough estimates the entire music industry gross capital for all genres were USD $80 million, then the world music genre brought in USD $8 million dollars per year by the 1990s. But at that time Latin American, African and European musics still dominated the world music market. Word music from Asia was still far behind.

In the entire world, the country richest in world music is none other than Indonesia. If you measure diversity alone, the traditional musics of Indonesia from across the archipelago is comparable to the diversity across the entire continent of Africa, and definitely worthy of competing with Latin America and Europe. Seen in this light, this article’s introduction is quite ironic. While other countries around the world were realizing the potential in the creative industry, key figures in Indonesia’s music industry have not gained appreciation in the eyes of the people or the government.

The Indonesian Music Expo (IMEX) will be held in Nusa Dua, Bali from November 7-14^th in order to address just that problem. IMEX aims to expand the opportunities of local music industry figures and give them a chance to compete fairly and win the hearts of the ‘market’ investors. Bali is an ideal location to test the Indonesian world music market, as it is the most internationally influenced region in the country. Ubud, for example, has become a small-scale center for international art.

Ubud may be the fastest-developing and most international area in all of Indonesia. At this time, the small area of Ubud already has three prestigious international art festivals: The Ubud Readers and Writers Festival, The BaliSpirit Festival and the Bali Inter-Music Festival. Because of this, after Nusa Dua, IMEX will move to Ubud from the 15-16^th to hold a workshop and seminar covering the theme “Understanding the Market potential of Indonesian Music.”

The speakers at this seminar are the heroes of the music industry that I mention above. The hope is that they will be able to share their experiences from the international stage to all the IMEX participants, especially those who have not yet had the opportunity to perform outside of Indonesia.

One speaker at the IMEX workshop is a digital music expert from Australia, Professor Greg Schiemer. For four days, from November 10-14, he will hold a workshop on how to create (not only use) technology in order to make music more creatively. Professor Schiemer is a digital music expert from Wollongong University who has designed many new electronic devices for creating music. These electronic devices can be used to develop traditional Indonesian music instruments. The work of Prof. Schiemer borrows many concepts from gamelan music. One outstanding device he has created is called the “Pocket Gamelan,” a mobile phone application developed for 30 service providers The appication can be programed to imitate the high frequencies of the gamelan tones.

This workshop will also be a chance for Prof Greg Schiemer to collaborate with traditional music masters from all over Indonesia, who will be attending the IMEX event at Peninsula Beach, Nusa Dua.

Click here to see the complete Indonesian Music Expo schedule.

The Bali Spirit Festival (BSF) Team are headed for the northern slopes of Mount Abang and Mount Agung, which lay barren after clear cutting and volcanic eruption have robbed them of their fertile forests. There, they plan to document and help raise funds for an agro-forestry project in Desa Ban, which covers an expanse of 7200 hectares. The project was initiated by the Environmental Bamboo Foundation (EBF) and East Bali Poverty Project (EBPP), utilizing the fastest-growing canopy on earth: bamboo.

By late morning the local Independence Day Festivities are well underway; villagers from throughout Desa Ban gather for entertainment prepared by the children, including traditional and popular music and dance performances and dramatic sketches offering clever guidance, merriment, nostalgia, and youthful hope. The Independence Day stage is erected on the parched, valley floor and rimmed with the familiar banners of red and white. Kicking up the dust in one of many dried-up riverbeds in the region, it is difficult to imagine this desert-like landscape can possibly support new forests. But Arief Rabik of EBF explains, “This is actually an ideal location for bamboo reforestation.”

EBF and EBPP plan to strategically expand existing forest by planting adjacent fields with bamboo. Ten percent of each hectare of land will be planted to create shelterbelts that provide erosion control and sun and wind protection. As the bamboo shoots grow into towering pillars, new grasses and other plant species will naturally germinate and thrive below. The growing forests will help reverse desertification and re-green these barren hills.

Arief Rabik and team

Located in one of the poorest regions of Bali, this agro-forestry project is community-driven: A bamboo field school will teach local communities how to plant, manage, and harvest their new forest. But the school desperately needs additional funds for curriculum development and to remain in operation. “Our main goal now,” explains EBPP Founder David Booth, “is to manage the plants we already have in the ground. But we still need to plant something like 3,000 Hectares.”

The film team spends the rest of the afternoon digging right into the replanting efforts, joining Rabik, local agro-forestry manager Pak Ketut Suwastika, and a team of project participants to plant new shoots on a steep hill above EBPP headquarters. Using local soil, organic compost, and fresh leafy mulch, each bamboo shoot is carefully planted and accompanied by a bottle of water stocked with absorbent seaweed to saturate the soil over the next few weeks. For up to three years, residents will tend the plants until they are hearty enough to withstand the elements.

Bamboo is a highly valuable construction material, serves a variety of purposes within Balinese Hindu ceremonies, and is utilized for handicrafts sold at art markets. Pak Suwastika explains that where other government reforestation projects have failed because of illegal logging, bamboo will still work: “we only have to plant bamboo once, and even if it is cut by the people here it will still re-grow.”

Rebekah with Pak Ketut Suwastika

Thanks to its rapid growth rate, Desa Ban’s residents can harvest the bamboo without depleting its supply. The goal of the project is three-fold, Suwastika says: “to promote reforestation, improve the local environment, and stimulate the local economy here in Desa Ban.”

This agro-forestry effort is one of many projects the Environmental Bamboo Foundation has established in Indonesia since its formation in 1993. EBF seeks to protect tropical forests by promoting and demonstrating the many conservation and development opportunities that bamboo offers. East Bali Poverty Project has been in operation since 1998 and helps to reduce poverty and promote culturally sensitive, sustainable development within impoverished rural communities.

BSF supports this project through documenting project activities. In addition to that, the Festival will present a bamboo shoot to each 2012 festivalgoer who purchases a VIP or Full Festival Pass.

This project is doing more than just contributing to carbon offset: they are helping to restore a degraded ecosystem on sacred land and supporting a community-based reforestation project that mutually benefits humans and nature.