End of Year Atambua Crossborder Festival 2016

Nearing the end of the year, on 10th December 2016 the Ministry of Tourism will again hold the Crossborder Festivalat Atambua on Timor island, directly bordering neighboring Timor Leste.

Set to take place in the capital of Belu Regency in the East Nusatenggara province, this Atambua Festival will be the finale to a series of Crossborder festivals already held here during 2016.

The festival will feature a fabulous musical concert, a collaboration between artists from both indonesia and Timor Leste. Among some names decorating the lineup are Indonesia’s prominent rock Band Jamrud, Kupang’s own artists H2K, as well as famous musicians from Atambua. Aside from pop music, the festival will also highlight traditional music and traditional dance performances from both countries.

Deputy for International Marketing of the Ministry of Tourism, I Gede Pitana, commented that such festivals have been staged each month since May this year which has significantly impacted on the growing number of tourists from Timor Leste each month. Pitana added that the event is aimed to further promote Indonesian Tourism as well as invite people from Timor Leste to come to Indonesia just across the border. “The Cross border Festival has proven to boost friendship between our two nations while increasing international tourists, especially at the Mota’ain (Timor Leste) border with Indonesia” said Pitana.

Sharing the border with the young independent country of Timor Leste, once known as East Timor, West Timor is a lesser known destination compared to its neighboring Flores or Komodo Islands. Nonetheless, it is no less captivating and therefore well worth a visit. The region is characterized by mainly rugged terrain which is home to unique traditional villages, and a vast diversity of flora and fauna. Timor is in many respects one of the Indonesian archipelago’s undiscovered jewels.Perched in the southwestern part of Timor Island, Kupang is the capital city of East Nusa Tenggara Province. Today, when visitors step foot on this modernizing city, they can still find traces of Dutch colonial buildings as well as Portuguese heritage. Leaving downtown Kupang, the Kupang Regency’s landscape captivates with its spiky Palmyra palms, rocky soil and central hills dotted with villages comprising sharp cone-shaped thatched huts and some fantastic coastlines. Situated in the rugged mountains about 40Km from the town of Soe, capital of the South Central Timor Regency, is the Boti Village which is the last village in Timor where the people still strictly adhere and practice the traditions and way of life of the Timorese ancestors.