Indonesia Performs At Cucumber Festival In Rusia

JAKARTA, July 20 - Indonesia became the guest of honor at the Cucumber Festival in Suzdal City, Russia, on July 15. The Cucumber Festival is the largest and most popular annual folk feast to celebrate the cucumber harvest and welcome the onset of summer. About 200 thousand tourists visited the event, Indonesian Ambassador to Russia Wahid Supriyadi stated in a press release received here on Wednesday. The festival was celebrated in a lively manner in all corners of the city, with excitement levels peaking in the open space of the Suzdal Wooden Architecture Museum. The festival was enlivened by cultural performances, concerts, street costume parade, product exhibitions, and workshops. As a guest of honor, the Red and White flag was hoisted beside the main stage. Indonesian Ambassador to the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus Wahid Supriyadi was requested to release the tri-color balloon symbolizing the Russian flag with Suzdal's mascot doll. Supriyadi was warmly welcomed by Vice Governor of Vladimir Oblast Alexander Lobakov and several local officials. During the festival, Indonesian artists performed two traditional dances on the main stage, such as the Jaipong Dance from West Java Province by Ekatarina Makanina, a Russian citizen who was awarded a Darmasiswa scholarship for a year in Bandung City in West Java, and Sekar Pudyastuti Dance from Central Java Province by Elizabeth Nilasari, a teacher at the Indonesia Moscow School. Visitors were impressed and applauded the Indonesian arts that were being showcased for the first time in the biggest annual event in Suzdal City. In addition to attending the Cucumber Festival, Supriyadi held a meeting with officials of Vladimir State to discuss the potential of cooperation between Indonesia and the state of Vladimir, especially in the fields of trade, tourism, and investment. Lobakov conveyed the potential of Suzdal and Vladimir Oblast as a historic tourist destination and an agricultural area producing wheat, potatoes, chemical products, glass, and wood. Vladimir Oblast also needs to import tropical fruits, palm oil products, and electrical equipment from Indonesia. "The relationship between Indonesia and Russia is of mutual need. In the midst of the current global economic slowdown, the value of bilateral trade had actually increased by 33.5 percent," Supriyadi noted in a speech in front of thousands of visitors. He expressed pride that Russian tourists visiting Indonesia in the first quarter rose by about 77 percent, or reached 37 thousand people, which is the highest increase in tourist visits in the world. On the other hand, there is a likelihood of witnessing an increase in Indonesian tourist arrivals in Russia next year and was forecast to reach 40 thousand people during the World Cup. The town of Suzdal is part of the state of Vladimir and was founded in 1024. The city is one of the oldest in Russia and located in the Golden Ring, northeast of Moscow, some five to six hours' drive by car. The city had 305 monuments and classical buildings, including 30 churches, 14 bell towers, five active monasteries, and 246 items protected by the government of Russian Federation. In 1991, six monuments and two buildings in Suzdal, the Savior Monastery of St Euthymius and the Kremlin with Navity of the Virgin, were included on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization World Heritage list.