Borneo Jazz 2012 Expected To Draw 9,000 People

KUCHING, Jan 12 (Bernama) -- A crowd of 9,000 is expected at this year's Borneo Jazz, Sarawak's premier international jazz festival, which will be held on May 11 and 12 in Miri, its organiser Sarawak Tourism Board (STB) announced Wednesday. STB chief executive officer Rashid Khan said about a third of the crowd had been targeted to be visitors from outside Sarawak. "This will augur well for the local business community and contribute significantly to the arrival figures to the state as a whole," he said at a press conference to launch the festival, here, today. Sarawak Tourism Minister Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg was on hand to launch it. Rashid said STB would also be collaborating with the private sector to design tour packages for regional and overseas visitors to the festival to give them the chance to visit places of interest and experience local activities. Eight jazz groups have confirmed their participation, nameyly New Cool Collective from the Netherlands, Schalk Joubert's 3 Continents Sextet (South Africa), Nita Aartsen (Indonesia), SLIX (Germany), Koh Mr Saxman and Takeshi Band (Thailand), Tangora (France), Tropic Green (Singapore) and F.V.E Project (Malaysia). Daily tickets priced at RM60 (US$19) each for adults and RM30 (US$9.5) for children aged between three and 12 will be available online from Feb 12. (US$1=RM3.14) Updates on this upcoming festival will be posted from time to time on www.jazzborneo.com. Miri is a city in northern Sarawak, East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo -- BERNAMA