Pan-seared ambuyat, one of the dishes created for the Flavours Of Borneo dining event with Reka: Bar, Ver and Chocha Foodstore. — MELODY L. GOH/The Star
Most people can do the hula hoop, though perhaps only for a second or two before the hoop falls to the floor. Some people can do it for a few short minutes, which is pretty impressive.
Meanwhile, at age 76, Grace Jones did it continuously (and flawlessly) for more than 10 minutes on stage at last weekend’s Ombak Festival 2024 at Desaru Coast in Johor, all while singing her hit song Slave To The Rhythm, dancing and talking to the audience at the same time.
It was the perfect end to her hour-long set, which also closed the second day of the inaugural Ombak Festival.
The event has been a long time coming. Plans began as far back as five years ago, when Desaru Coast officially opened in mid-2019.
A year earlier, the Adventure Waterpark Desaru Coast had begun its operations, together with a nearly-completed Hard Rock Hotel Desaru Coast. Westin Desaru Coast Resort welcomed its first guests in early 2019, Anantara Desaru Coast Resort & Villas in late 2019, and One & Only Desaru Coast during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Obviously, the pandemic played a part in the festival’s delay, but perhaps that was a blessing in disguise for the organisers as the Malaysia Day-Maulidur Rasul weekend – a four-day break for many of us – proved to be the best time to hold Ombak Festival.
Just don’t think about the massive traffic congestion that occurred between Kuala Lumpur and Johor Baru on Friday night/Saturday ... well, everywhere in the Peninsular, really. It was also the start of the school holidays, which definitely added to the pile of cars – and humans.
The Shang Sisters had a super fun set during the festival opening night on Friday.
What happened
The three-day festival was set within the premiere holiday destination’s coastal area, a massive 1,600ha of space that included the beaches. Events were mainly held at three of the properties – Hard Rock, The Westin and Anantara – while the Riverside was slotted as the Festival Village.
There were three stages for the live performances: The Ombak Main Stage, Westin Beachfront and the Hard Rock Sessions Stage. International festival headliners like Jones, The Cardigans (who played on Saturday), Macy Gray (Sunday) and Nile Rodgers & Chic (Sunday) played at the Ombak Main Stage, alongside local stars Joe Flizzow, Bunga, Thee Marloes, Kugiran Masdo, Alena Murang, Alextbh, and Singaporean singer Aisyah Aziz.
Meanwhile, Datuk Zainal Abidin brought the house down at the Hard Rock Sessions Stage on Friday night, together with Singapore-based Italian singer Matilde G, and Indonesian band Sweet Nightmare.
Datuk Zainal Abidin, one of the most famous Johoreans in showbiz, played at the Hard Rock Sessions Stage on Friday.
Also on show at the Westin Beachfront on Friday night – billed as the festival’s “opening night”, though there was no fanfare to mark the occasion – was the adorable The Shang Sisters, a Malaysian jazz trio who’s on a mission to bring back “Nanyang jazz” into the mainstream music scene. The “sisters” were backed by WVC Jazz, a popular Malaysian jazz ensemble, who also had a slot on the same stage.
In between the music performances, there were numerous other events happening all around the festival grounds including fun stuff for kids like storytelling sessions, traditional games (it was the Malaysia Day weekend after all), and even a silent disco. There were arts and crafts activities like the Shore Debris Table by Ayer Ayer, Go Fly Kites by Razi Said, and a tour of the Segaris Visual Arts mini exhibition.
Festivalgoers were also treated to “visits” by two giant puppets – Fiz and Meera – which were commissioned works by Thailand’s Nice Monster, who collaborated with Malaysian filmmaker Lina Tan to give the puppets a local narrative.
Meera & Fiz, the giant puppets created by Nice Monsters.
Finally, of course, what is a festival without its typical festival food? Food Fiction by REXKL at the Festival Village featured a handful of vendors including Fafaba, Sala, Brotani, Jojo’s By Joloko, Kantin, Calle Taco, Licky Chan and Kai Nusantara Eatery, who came all the way from the Klang Valley.
Exclusive and ticketed culinary events were also on offer, like the Ombak Supper Club With The Stars By Yellow Fin Horse, Kitchen Takeover By Carbon KL, Flavours Of Borneo By Reka: Bar, Ver and Chocha Foodstore, and Street & Beats.
Check and balance
As a first-time event, Ombak Festival did pretty well. Or at the very least, it was a good effort from the organiser and collaborators. There was something for everyone on the schedule, from the very young to the well, seniors and senior-adjacent like myself. And I’m not just talking about the music, though I must admit, I initially thought a majority of the crowd for the headliners, especially for Grace Jones and Nile Rodgers & Chic, would be older.
A festivalgoer from Singapore at the Go Fly Kites by Razi Said event, where folks get to make their own wau.
Surprisingly, there seemed to be more Gen Z folks in the audience – and they were thoroughly enjoying themselves too – than Gen X so that was truly refreshing to witness.
Of course, music transcends all barriers, and with the festival’s rather eclectic lineup (The Cardigans was the odd duck here, but I’m not complaining as I love the band) I was happy that it all worked out well in the end.
The official statement from the organisers said that there were more than 5,000 attendees during the festival, but it did not seem like it. This is probably because the festival grounds were massive. If you were at the Main Stage, for example, you could hardly see the Festival Village, let alone the number of people there.
The crowd only started to build up when the performances began at the Main Stage, which was later in the evening, on both Saturday and Sunday.
Pan-seared ambuyat, one of the dishes created for the Flavours Of Borneo dining event with Reka: Bar, Ver and Chocha Foodstore. — MELODY L. GOH/The Star
But while the Main Stage constantly had a healthy number of people milling about, the scene at the Festival Village was far less encouraging. The food vendors, as well as retailers like Kapten Batik, Borneo Sparkles and House Of Antara, and those under the Collection Curated By Dia Guild, definitely did not get enough customers. Speaking to some of the vendors, the problem seemed to be that no one realised that the village was the “entrance” to the festival.
“The festivalgoers were supposed to be dropped off here by the shuttle, or they’re supposed to park their cars near this area but that doesn’t seem to be the case,” said one vendor. “They go straight to the Main Stage, and there’s food available there too so they skip the village.”
Perhaps the fact that nearly half the attendees of the festival stayed at the resorts in Desaru Coast – therefore either chose to dine at their hotel, or walked straight to the stages – contributed to this problem.
Still, this is actually a small kink as far as organising a festival goes, though it should definitely be addressed if a following festival or event were to be considered down the road. Hopefully, there will be an Ombak Festival 2025, as it would definitely help to promote the state’s main event: Visit Johor Year 2026.
