PHUKET; More than 1,000 people turned out to take part in the Phuket Peranakan Festival ‘Extravaganza Carnival’ grand parade held in the heart of Phuket Old Town on Saturday evening (June 24).
Roads were closed for the event, the keystone spectacle of the three-day festival, which concluded yesterday (June 25).
Despite residents in Phuket Town celebrating their Baba-Nyonya culture through government-supported events for decades, the ‘Phuket Peranakan Festival’ was heralded as the first of its kind, a “prototype” of events to promote sustainable tourism by focusing on local culture.
More than 20 organisations joined together to create the Phuket Peranakan Festival 2023, including the Phuket Provincial Office, the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation (PPAO), Phuket City Municipality, the Peranakan Association of Thailand, the Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), the Thailand International Events & Festivals Trade Association (TIEFA) and the Phuket Old Town Community association, reported the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department (PR Phuket).
It was not reported how much government budget was allocated to holding the event.
Phuket Governor Narong Woonciew presided over the opening ceremony, joined by PPAO President Rewat Areerob, former Phuket MP Anchalee Vanich Thepabutr and Phuket Town Deputy Mayor Prasit Sinsaowapak.
The festival served as “a magnet for sustainable tourism, with emphasis on inviting local Phuket residents and Thai and foreign tourists to participate in traditional costumes to participate in the event, raising the level of soft power to become an annual international arts and culture festival. sustainable in the future,” PR Phuket reported.
“Hundreds of stories have been passed down through to the new generation, with many dimensions connecting from the introduction of preserving Baba-Nyonya wedding traditions to the international Peranakan style and the application of contemporary art and culture,” the report added.
“It also includes media innovation. All of which is to forge the oneness of Phuket with strong roots or DNA and with stories and contents of Peranakan [people and their culture] that Phuket is home to, on the Malay Peninsula,” the report continued.
The festival is also hoped to inspire round-tourism for visitors to observe and enjoy Pernakan culture, which has already served as a major attraction for Phuket Town tourism for many decades.
Various shops in Phuket Old Town and surrounding areas are hoped to benefit from the festival, and the subsequent increase in the number of tourists visiting the area that the festival is hoped to inspire.
The festival began on Friday (June 23) with an event at Woo Gallery & Boutigue Hotel promoted as the “opening” of the ‘Phuket Peranakan Festival 2023’, with a display of stunning traditional wedding dresses and costumes in the Baba-Nyonya style of the Peranakan, ethnic Chinese-Malays living on the Malay Peninsula.
Expert speaker Cedric Tan from Malaysia presented the ‘Workshop & Showcase’, explaining 150 years of Peranakan style in Malaysia.
In the evening, the Khun Jom Yamaha band from Sounds Gallery performed traditional Malay songs, and dancers from Indonesia entertained those present.
Continuing the opening festivities, the Thai Women’s Social Creation Association, the Peranakan Association of Phuket and the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation (PPAO) hosted a reception for guests at The Carb House.
The music and traditional dance performances continued over the weekend at the Standard Chartered intersection, in the heart of Phuket Town.
