Recently, the 15th edition of the George Town Festival in Penang was announced along with a teaser video to garner hype for the annual celebration of arts, culture, heritage and community.
However, rather than excitement, the organisers were faced with backlash for the lack of Malay representation in their now-deleted teaser video.
Taking to their Facebook page, George Town Festival apologised for the teaser video, while also promoting the various Malay-oriented programmes that will take place at this year’s celebrations.
They wrote, “The George Town Festival 2024 team regrets that the promotional teaser video has inadvertently offended some individuals and groups. In order to avoid misunderstandings, the George Town Festival 2024 team has taken down all posts related to the video on George Town Festival’s social media pages, website and YouTube channel.”
“In fact, all planning and promotions of George Town Festival 2024 have tried to ensure inclusive, comprehensive and balanced representation, including in terms of programme categories, gender groups, age and ethnic representation in all George Town Festival programmes.”
With that, they shared the various programmes with Malay representation
All of these will take place during the festival, including PEON presentations by Patblas Creative, a guided tour by Moka Mocha Ink, dance performances by MyDance Alliance, a USM art exhibition, and more!
George Town Festival went on to apologise for the misunderstandings that were caused by their teaser video.
“The George Town Festival 2024 team will continue to promote the George Town Festival as a celebration that fosters the spirit of goodwill in order to create a civilised and prosperous Malaysian society,”
“We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any shortcomings and difficulties, mistakes and misunderstandings that may have arisen. We will continue to strive to make George Town Festival 2024 a success with humility,” they added.
You can check out the teaser here.
What do you think of the teaser video? Do feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section.
Also read: PAS MP Wants Government to Consider Changing George Town’s Name Back to Tanjung Penaga
