Urbanscapes: A Celebration of Malaysia’s Contemporary Arts

Have you ever wondered about Malaysia’s contemporary arts scene?  Then its time to introduce you to KL’s annual Urbanscapes festival, a yearly celebration of the vision and creativity of Malaysia’s contemporary arts fraternity. This arts exposition brings together artists, creative communities and business, hailing from the fields of music, fashion, arts, design and more.

A local company Freeform Sdn. Bhd, founded the festival by hosting a first kick-off arts event at a small, KL eatery, in 2002.  Since that initial launch the festival has grown tremendously and now draws massive crowds. As a result, it is now hosted on larger venues and is usually conducted over a weekend, popularly referred to as ‘the Big Weekend’. This year’s edition of Urbanscapes, is scheduled for the weekend of 23^rd and 24^th November and will be hosted at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) at Serdang, Selangor. A venue easily accessible from Kuala Lumpur by various modes of transport.

Aside from attracting increasing numbers of arts enthusiasts, the festival portfolio has also expanded to include much international participation from the region and beyond. Music concerts, stand-up comedy performances, dance recitals, shadow puppetry, poetry readings, beat boxing presentations, percussion and ukulele routines, all feature in the festival program at Urbanscapes.

The exciting lineup for Urbanscapes 2013, features acts like Scotland’s chart topping rock band Franz Ferdinand, Canadian indie-rock duo Tegan and Sara, Northern Ireland’s dance-rock trio Two Door Cinema Club, Efterklang, a electronica rock outfit from Denmark along with  various other international acts like the Obedient Wives Club from Singapore, the Black Voices from the UK, the Last Dinosaurs from Australia and many more. The lineup additionally features popular standup comedy acts like Pierre Hollins from the UK and Malaysia’s very own Kuah Jehnan who describes himself as tall, dark and comedian.

Urbanscapes also has a strong retail component in the form of popup shops showcasing the works of ingenious artists and businesses and offering apparel, accessories, home wares, lifestyle products, vintage wares and other knick-knacks for sale. In addition to retail outlets, the festival grounds also host several food and beverage kiosks, to cater to the dining needs of festivalgoers.

So if you would like to uncover Malaysia’s contemporary arts scene, why not plan a trip to Kuala Lumpur and pencil in a visit to Urbanscapes as a part of your shopping, dining and sightseeing in KL itinerary.