SARAWAK will not impose a dress code on performers – foreign and local ones alike – at this year’s Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF). 

“Not a problem as long as they aren’t naked on stage,” state Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Minister Abdul Karim Hamzah told the media after presenting mementos to RWMF sponsors and partners in Kuching today.

Karim said opinions on how some performers dress are subjective.

“To some, (they) might be scantily dressed, but to us, it’s quite okay as long as they don’t go naked.”

The minister said in the 26 years the music festival has been held, there has never been an issue about performers’ attire.

“We have not had any problems. That’s not an issue and we don’t plan to make that an issue,” Karim said in an apparent rebuff to Malaysia’s guidelines that were updated in March by the Central Agency for Application for Filming and Performance by Foreign Artistes.

On the annual three-day festival from June 23 to 25, which is headlined by two Grammy winners – Karim said he is expecting tickets to sell out for the event’s first fully physical comeback since the relaxation of worldwide Covid-19 travel rules.

He said he expects regular festival-goers to return to the RWMF even as other music festivals make their own comebacks and most countries take advantage of border reopenings. 

Karim said though there may be some challenges, he believes RWMF die-hards will find their way to Sarawak.

RWMF has been named among the top 25 music festivals in the world.

As a measure of response to this year’s fest, Karim said the 3,000 early-bird tickets have sold out, with locals snapping up 60% of them. – June 9, 2023.