WATCH: Batik Music festival combines fashion, music, heritage destination

YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia recently celebrated National Batik Day with a music festival called “Batik Music Festival."

Batik, the art of decorating cloth with wax-resist dyeing, was named as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage Humanity by UNESCO on Oct. 2, 2009.

The Southeast Asian country has since then celebrated this recognition regularly.

For the first time, this year, events promoter Rajawali Indonesia decided to hold a music festival in honor of the traditional textile.

The music festival held last week was unlike the usual ones as it combined three masterpieces— Indonesian fashion, music and its heritage destination.

It comes with a historic view as it was held at the Prambanan Temple complex, in the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Prambanan Temple, a World UNESCO Heritage is the largest temple compound dedicated to Shiva in Indonesia built in the 10th century.

“I think this festival—Batik Music Festival is very very good…I want this collaboration for three masterpiece, Prambanan Temple, batik and music,” Anas Syahrul Alim, Rajawali Indonesia's CEO told Philstar.com.

The festival was filled with color as music festival-goers were asked to wear batik.

It was headlined by Indonesian performers Yovie and His Friends, Raisa, Kahitna, Arsy Widianto, BCL, Marcell, Rio Febrian and 5 Romeos.

A separate stage was also set for the performances of Canadian musician David Foster and his friends. These include his wife and American Idol alumna Katharine McPhee-Foster along with other performers such as singer-songwriter, Kenneth Brian “Baby Face” Edmonds; American Idol alumna Pia Toscano, Malaysian singer Yuna and Singaporean singer Nick Zavior.

At least 9,000 attended the music festival, according to Alim.

He said the organizing team is looking into making the Batik Music Festival an annual event.

Watch the performance of David Foster and his friends here:

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Editor's note: The tour to Yogyakarta was hosted by Tourism Office of Yogyakarta City. At no stage does the host government has a say on the stories generated from the coverage, interviews conducted, publication date and story treatment. Content is produced solely by Philstar.com following editorial guidelines.