Masidi hears the jingles of tourist money from a music festival

When a jazz festival was mooted by the Society of Performing Arts of Kota Kinabalu (SPArKS) three years ago, nobody wanted it. The Rotary Club of Kota Kinabalu thought it could use it to raise funds for its community projects. The response to it surprised the organisers: more than 1,000 people bought tickets of 50 and 100 ringgit ($16 and $32) for the three yearly jazz shows. About 240,000 ringgit was raised for the Rotarians’ projects and SPArKS. Now in its fourth year, Masidi Manjun, minister of tourism, culture and environment, is thinking of turning it into a month-long festival to earn money from tourists.

“Our city will become the centre of world music,” he said on May 18 in announcing this year’s jazz festival scheduled for June 18 and 19. It will be held at the roofed tennis court of Sutera Harbour Marina Golf and Country Club in Kota Kinabalu. “We want to showcase world music. We’re not talking just about jazz, but a month of all kinds of music including classical, hip hop and our cultural music.”

Mr Masidi, who is a fan of Malaysia’s jazz queen Sheila Majid, feels that such a festival will spur local business. “People will be flocking to our city,” he says. “They will dine in our restaurants, sleep in our hotels, buy our handicraft and visit other places in Sabah.”

So, Mr Masidi says his ministry may come out with a “tourism package” to promote a month of musical festivities to foreigners.

Yet for all the enthusiasm, financial support from private businesses which stand to gain from the jazz festival has been a pittance. Even SPArKS president Adeline Leong is embarrassed. “I don’t like to mention how much we have collected as it will not sound too good to our sponsors,” she tells Insight Sabah.

Frankie Fu Ka Onn, president of the Rotary club of Kota Kinabalu, says about 100,000 ringgit is needed to organise the jazz show. The Sabah government is the biggest contributor with 40,000 ringgit coming from Mr Masidi’s ministry while the Sabah Development Bank, wholly owned by the Sabah government, has given 50,000 ringgit. The rest comes from Carlsberg, the Danish brewery, Sutera Harbour Resort and DiGi, Malaysia’s mobile phone company.

Tickets for this year’s jazz festival are cheaper: 80 ringgit for a 2-day pass and 50 ringgit for one day. Showtime is from 7-11 p.m.

Mr Fu expects between 3,000 and 5,000 people to turn up, noting that there were 2,500 at last year’s festival. The maiden event in 2007 attracted about 1,000 jazz fans.

The Rotarians have used its last three year’s earnings from the jazz festivals to bring water supply to villagers in Kota Marudu and Pitas in rural Sabah.

What SPArKS does with its share of the money has not been told. "This is the part I cannot reveal to you,” Ms Leong says. “Just mention that all the ticket sales will be given for (sic) donation. The rest, whatever we got from our sponsors, is between us SPArKS, Rotary and our sponsors. You don’t need to know the deal between us."

Mr Fu says his club expects to earn 100,000 ringgit from ticket sales which will be used to supply water through a gravity system for 2,000 villagers. – Insight Sabah

– Reported by Jenney Juanis and Elizabeth Majaham; Pictures by Henry Matakim.