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CITY CELEBRATES 42nd FAIR

Jakarta’s biggest exhibition, the Jakarta Fair, opens today in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, offering more products and entertainment than before.

Held annually for the past 42 years under different names, the Jakarta Fair Kemayoran is organized to commemorate the anniversary of Jakarta’s founding, which falls on June 22.

In 1967, Jakarta Governor Ali Sadikin decided to hold a huge trading exhibition in the city inspired by the Pasar Malam Gambir, a night market started by the Dutch colonial administration decades before Indonesia gained its independence.

The following year, the Jakarta Fair (it was then written as Djakarta Fair) attracted nearly 1.5 million people. And the next year, US President Richard Nixon attended the fair while visiting the country.

“[The event] grew bigger each year so the city decided to move the venue from Monas [the national monument park] to a bigger location,” said Budi Santoso, managing director of PT Jakarta International Expo, which organizes the event.

The exhibition area, located where the old airport was before being moved to its current address in Banten Province, covers some 40 hectares of land.

But a free TransJakarta bus service is available to ferry people from Monas to the venue in Kemayoran, a media representative said.

This year’s fair, Budi said, will exhibit products from more than 2,500 mostly Indonesian companies — food, furniture, cars, motorcycles, electronics and many more.

“People love looking at the new products companies try to sell at usually lower prices, especially when they have games in their booths,” Budi said. “Visitors also love to see the live musical performances we have every night.”

These performances are what Reni Syafriani, a university student, is after.

As a kid, when her parents took her and her siblings to the fair, she said the games were the primary attraction.

“I loved to ride on a horse on the carousel,” 21-year-old Reni said. “Now, I go there with my friends and watch the bands playing on stage.”

The bands that will perform this year are the country’s top performers, Budi said.

“This is very effective to make people come to the fair,” he said.

The bands scheduled to appear each evening on the main stage include Slank, Padi, Dewa, Peterpan and Maliq & D’Essentials.

Admission tickets to the fair cost Rp 15,000 ($1.50) Monday through Thursday, and Rp 20,000 Friday through Sunday, but some say these prices are too steep, especially as they are higher than they were before 2007.

“I used to take my family and some nephews to Jakarta Fair, but I stopped going there when the ticket price went up,” said Mohammad Irawan, a civil servant. “Not to mention the money we spent on food and transportation.”

But for Nuraeni, another civil servant who used to go to the fair when she was a child and last year attended for the first time with her husband and their two children, the price is not an issue.

She said her children enjoyed the new games so much at the event that “they’ve already asked me to go this year again.”


SEXY SELLS: THE ART OF PROMOTING PRODUCTS

Many students earn extra money by working seven- to eight-hour shifts in promotional booths at the Jakarta Fair.

Julie, 23, has worked there twice promoting herbal medicine and coffee. “The money wasn’t bad and the companies provided a free meal and a ride home for those working the night shift,” she said. “But I am currently earning more money so I won’t be at this year’s Jakarta Fair.”

She said female staff were often expected to wear sexy costumes.

“I refused offers that required me to wear a skimpy outfit,” she said. “Millions of men come to the fair.”

Aya, 24, will return as a sales promo girl for the third time this year, working for the same company she represented last year. For a month of full-time work, Ayu will earn Rp 3 million ($300).

“I enjoy working as an SPG as I’m currently taking a leave from my university study,” she said.

The first company she worked for recommended that she enter the Miss Jakarta Fair beauty pageant.

The pageant was previously only for promo staff but is now open to the public for the first time this year. (A media representative said the winner will be crowned on the closing day, but he was unsure of the prize money on offer.)

“But I refused it,” Ayu said. “It’s time-consuming and we don’t get extra payment for it. The prize is a huge amount of money but I’m not tempted.”

Dani Setiadi, who worked as a salesman at the fair two years ago, said: “Companies prefer girls to attract people. There were more girls in our booth. There were only four of us boys, and two were dressed as clowns.”

The women’s costumes cause some problems, Ayu said.

“A lot of men harassed me during the fair,” she said. “They asked me how much I usually charged.”

“This year’s uniform is a very short, tight dress,” she added.

“I guess that’s why people think we are hookers.”


WHEN AND WHERE

Arena PRJ Kemayoran, Central Jakarta
June 11 - July 12, 2009
Monday thru Friday, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday thru Sunday, 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

The daily musical performances on the main stage in the open space area (free with admission) start at 8 p.m. today and 7 p.m. on all other days. We recommend the following (schedule may change):

June 11: PADI and Mulan Jameela
June 14: Peterpan
June 21: Changcuters and ST 12
June 24: Dewa
June 26: Slank
July 1: Jamrud
July 7: Ello
July 10: Maliq & D’Essentials

For further information, see www.jakartafair.biz