From 18 to 23 August, central Singaraja will be closed to cars for six evenings and taken over by Bulfest, Buleleng Regency’s main festival, which draws people to northern Bali from all nine districts.
This year’s festival is styled after the eighties, with mellow music featuring kroncong instead of heavier sounds, faded retro decor, and food that was sold on Singaraja’s streets at the time.
Among the foods highlighted by the organisers are laklak, small rice pancakes made with coconut milk and served with grated coconut and palm sugar syrup, and jukut buangit, a slightly sour soup made from the leaves of buangit, a weed that grows in rice fields. In Singaraja, it is sold mainly at markets around Sangsit.
KLa Project, a Jakarta band that Indonesians have been listening to since the late eighties, will perform on the first evening. The rest of the programme will take place on two stages, one by the Singa Ambara Raja winged lion monument and the other at the Catus Pata intersection, with dance, gamelan, exhibitions, and showcases of traditional and modern art.
Last year gives an idea of the festival’s scale: in addition to the main stage, there were four other venues and a hundred vendors, including 42 selling food and 58 selling crafts. Over six days, they generated 3 billion rupiah in revenue, while around ten thousand people attended each day. Admission was free.
The venue is Koridor Titik Nol, the city’s central intersection, which was redeveloped for more than a year and opened only at the end of July. Jalan Veteran, Jalan Pahlawan, and Jalan Ngurah Rai will be closed in the city centre during the festival, with traffic diverted via Jalan WR Supratman, Surapati, Hasanuddin, and Dr. Sutomo.
Singaraja is around 80 kilometres from Denpasar, and the journey via Bedugul takes two and a half to three hours. Since the festival’s main attractions all begin in the evening, it makes sense to stay overnight.
Lovina is the most practical place to stay: it is around twenty minutes from central Singaraja, boats leave from there in the morning for dolphin-watching trips, and nearby daytime attractions include Sekumpul Waterfall, Gitgit Waterfall, and Banjar Hot Springs. It is best to book a place on a morning boat in advance, for example through MyBaliTrips.
Last year, the regency ran free bemos from the Banyuasri, Penarukan, and Sangket terminals, provided two dokar services along Jalan Sutomo, and directed cars to six parking areas. No such arrangements have yet been confirmed for this year.
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