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Despite the loss of one of its major sponsors, the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival is set to go ahead this October, and aims to be even bigger and better than ever. “It will go on and it will not disappoint,” said the festival’s founder and director, Janet De Neefe, after learning that lead sponsor Citibank would not be supporting the festival this year.
Ditta Amahorseya, head of corporate affairs at Citibank Indonesia, said it was unfortunate that the company had to withdraw its sponsorship. She said the decision was made after Citibank was sanctioned by the central bank over two cases, one involving the death of a credit card customer and the other related to the alleged embezzlement by a Citibank customer relations officer.
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Under the sanctions, Citibank cannot add new credit card or premium banking customers for two years.
“We deeply apologize that we had to withdraw from our partnership with this prestigious festival,” Ditta said.
Festival organizers plan to hold a variety of events from Oct. 5-9 in more than 50 venues around Ubud, including panel sessions, workshops, readings, literary lunches, book launches and cocktail parties. Some events are free to the public, while others require visitors to purchase a ticket. Organizers hope to draw around 25,000 visitors and participants, which would be 20 percent more than last year, with an increased number of Indonesian readers and writers.
“I’m truly excited that we are using more Indonesians than ever as authors and moderators,” De Neefe said.
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The annual event has always shown its commitment to promoting Ubud as the center of arts and culture. The festival was started by the Saraswati Foundation in 2004, with the hope of drawing tourists back to the island after the 2002 bombing.
This year’s theme is “Nandurin Karang Awak,” or “Cultivate the Land Within” — a line from an epic poem by Balin
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