MATSWAPATI!!!

On saturday, september 27 2014, SMAN 3 Bandung held  an event called MATSWAPATI. It was an art and culture festival. It concentrated on West Java's culture. The organizers for this event include 10,11,12 graders and teachers as well. I am one of the organizers so I needed to be at the venue at 5 am but because I was sloppy and I was tired, I woke up late and arrived at Lapangan Bali (where Matswapati was held) at 6:30. It was embarrassing because I walked to the venue alone while everyone was staring at me. Thank God my friends picked me up at the gate.

I was in the division of decoration so I worked before the D-day but that day, I got in to logistic. What I worked in the division of decoration was basically making the venue looks pretty. I and my friends made many ornaments to be put all over the place. I personally think we did a great job. The job costed my skirts to be colorful because of all the paint, I felt like an artist already. But anyway, At 7 am, when my 10 grader friends were going to the parade, I carried heavy music instruments and stuff like those. That's basically what I did mostly in Matswapati. But because I'm a girl and the logistic people didn't expect me to be muscular and carry all the equipments, I got many chances to watch the performances on stage.

I watched many Sundanese cultures such as traditional dance, music, puppet show, and martial arts. When the gate officially opened, there were speeches from the school principal, the head of the organizers, and the mayor. It went on with Jaipong Dance, and was continued with sundanese martial art which I forgot what the name is. And then I did the mob dancing with my teacher and my friends. We were recorded but I decided not to care.

 Every class must have a stand. My class, X IPA 3 had a game stand. The game was called pepeletokan. Pepeletokan is basically a bamboo shotgun and the bullets are substituted by wet newspaper. We had to shoot on the target and get points and win prizes. It was sticky but still fun. The prizes we prepared were traditional candies, puppets, T-shirts, and a handmade matswapati crown. Back to carrying equipments, my energy was drained really quickly so I bought lunch from the food section. The food festival was consisted mainly by sundanese food but there was a kebab stand and since I wasn't in the mood to eat rice, I ate kebab. I bought milo too. I can tell I bought like 4 glasses milo during matswapati due to lack of energy and sunny weather. Also a glass of lemon tea, and two bottles of mineral water.

They announced the winner of the parade and it was my class! Yay! We won 1 million rupiahs. We are rich now.

The following performance was from Musik Klasik 3, an extracurricular for those who likes and is able to play classical music. The performance was a mix of classical and traditional music. I watched them from backstage. There was Tiloe's Theater (T'st)  too. You can already tell what this extracurricular is. The play was funny for sure. They never fail to make me laugh. And then many performances followed, such as SambaSunda, I really liked their performance because the singer's voice is good and the music is really cool too. I mean traditional music is always grande. When it was time for SambaSunda to perform, they complained that they lost their Rebana (a traditional drum kind of thing) and the logistic people ran to SMA 3 and to the venue back and forth only to look for the replacement but it turned out that their Rebana was still in their car. Okay. Then followed by Saung Angklung Udjo, and a puppet show. We call it wayang here. I didn't get the chance to watch the wayang because I was eating baso tahu with my friend Iffa, at the food section. After I ate, I hurried back to the backstage and helped the logistic people. Finally it was time for Barsena. I saw him backstage but I decided to watch him in front of the stage. He was really cute and he has such an amazing voice. I've been crushing on Barsena since like a year ago and finally got the chance to see him live. I sang along with my friends and jumped and danced and just had the time of my life. Then it was finally the highlight of the show, Glenn Fredly. Most of his songs were about love, either heartbreak or cheesy songs but since I am a hopeless romantic I enjoyed the show. He also gave speeches about our former president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, on how Glenn was disappointed by SBY and his decisions. We danced dangdut style with Glenn Fredly and I think I kinda gave all my moves out with my friends because dancing is fun and there's just no time to be embarrassed.

After Glenn Fredly, there was a fire attraction and it was really pretty with all the fire and stuff. The fire attraction was some guys blowing fire out of their mouths. I have no idea how they did that. Maybe their ancestors were dragons. Black sky and fiery orange really was a nice combination of colors. I wish I could freeze Matswapati and be in it for God knows when, but like all great things, it must come to an end. When it ended, I went out to buy fresh milk with a touch of mocca and it was goooooood. And then I came back to the venue, grabbed my bag, and went home.

Thank you SMA N 3 Bandung for this event, I am happy that I am part of this. XXX