The Ubud Writers & Readers Festival (UWRF) will be held again this year. This annual literary festival will be held from 27 October to 30 October 2022. This year will be the 19th year the festival is being held.
Memayu Hayuning Bawana became the chosen theme for this festival. Memayu Hayuning Bawana itself is an ancient Javanese philosophy that has the meaning of the basic principles that we maintain, protect, and beautify this universe.
Bawana means our world, where it is not only a physical form but also a cultural and spiritual nature. Merging is the path we maintain on this planet to the eternal path to universal harmony. UWRF embodies this philosophy into Uniting Humanity, which will open a variety of programs to honor human capacities that will strengthen our bonds as individuals and the world as a collective.
Bringing up interesting themes and philosophies every year, it is no wonder that this literary festival week is visited by many literary lovers. One of them is Stine, a woman from Australia who came for the third time to this festival.
According to her, this year’s festival is a little smaller, and not many big names are present at this year’s festival, but he said that it doesn’t matter because there are still many other thought-provoking discussions.
“ I think it’s smaller and I quite like that and they not as many kinds of big well-known names, but I still think it’s really, really interesting and there’s a lot of very thought-provoking discussions. So I’m really enjoying it. Well, I’m going to see tomorrow’s highlight, go and see about the Bali bombings, and also about what’s happening in Ukraine. So oh yeah, I am looking at for that kind of thing, more political discussions, I am finding that very, very interesting,” she added.
Asked about the differences in the organization of the festival each year, Stine said that in the past several events were held in several venues, and according to him it was rather difficult to reach them. According to him, this time the festival was held centrally in one place, so it was quite easy to move to catch up with other sessions. Meanwhile, for speakers, the previous year’s event brought more big names. He also thinks it’s exciting, but that doesn’t mean this year’s festival isn’t interesting
“Well, it was, it was, you know, it had the other events up there and also had some events in done in downtown. There are quite like that. It’s all in one spot because it’s much easier to get around. You can switch around easier and there were some really big names in international names and that was interesting. It was a bit But I don’t miss that. But I can totally understand that that probably will come back again because of in the future, but I don’t think it’s a big minus,” she added.
Not only repeated visitors that come to UWRF this year, Jannie, a woman from Singapore came for the first time to this literary festival in Ubud. Jannie revealed that she came to Ubud after browsing the internet. In addition, he also said that he is a lover of literature.
“Well, because number one, I’m a literature and language tutor. But yeah, I used to teach in school, but I’m retired now. But I still do tutoring and I’m always interested in writers and being a reader myself. So I have found the written word something very powerful, something very beautiful, And something very communicative and expressive. And that is why we are here,” she answered.
In addition, Jannie shared that this visit was her first visit to Bali. He came to UWRF with a friend. In addition to enjoying events at UWRF, he also took the time to enjoy various tourist facilities in Ubud.
“This is a new experience. Me and my friend, I have never been to Bali before. So that is why we are doing what we call the value traveling so that we put to this four-day festival, as well as touring, and do the usual touristy things like go on the Uber swing and go and pyramids of G yeah. Do all those fun things as well. Yeah. And then experience the food, the massages, the pleasures, and also meeting new people. Yeah, lots of new people like you for one,” She said with a smile.
Furthermore, as an elderly visitor, Jannie said that the availability of toilets that were easily found was an essential thing for her. However, in general, Jannie is very happy to join this year’s UWRF.
