Penang Chief Minister YAB Chow Kon Yeow with YB Yeoh and GTF organising team
By V. Sivaji
The 14th edition of the Georgetown Festival will be held from July 15 to 30, 2023.
Present to announce the mega event was Penang Chief Minister YAB Chow Kon Yeow, State Exco for Tourism and Creative Economy YB Yeoh Soon Hin and Festival director Jack Wong among others.
There will be 50 programmes in eight categories this year and with 70% of the shows being free for members of the public.
“The George Town Festival has needed to adapt to certain restrictions and limitations, seeing a digital version in 2020, a hybrid version in 2021 and a scaled-back physical version last year.
“Last year was a highly successful and impressive iteration with 90% of sold-out ticketed shows and over 100,000 attendees throughout the two-week duration of the festival.
“This year GTF 2023 will collaborate with Design Village Outlet Mall to present “Sounds from the East” to showcase extraordinary talents from Sabah and Sarawak,” said Chow.
Among the line-up are Bamboo Woods, Pinanak Sentah and At Adau.
He also added that the state remains committed to making Penang a meaningful place for everyone through the Penang2030 Vision.
As a prelude to the main event, a showcase will be held at the Design Village Outlet Mall car park on July 8 to showcase the Borneo talents.
Meanwhile, Andy Song, chief operating officer of Design Village presented a mock cheque for RM50,000 to the Chief Minister at the same ceremony.