The Traditional Flute Festival 2018, is a music festival organised by the Dizi Society (Singapore) gathering talented flutists from the ASEAN region, as well as China, Japan and Korea, for the purpose of showcasing different facets of the ASEAN community and promoting traditional music to the local community in Singapore.

 

Coinciding with Singapore's chairmanship of ASEAN this year, we hope that the Festival will be a platform to bring Singaporeans and members of the ASEAN communities together in a massive cultural exchange to deepen their understanding of one another and promote regional social cohesion, while exploring the ASEAN identity in solidarity. It is also an objective of the Festival to encourage the masses to discover an appreciation for traditional music and its links to our roots as a community. In conjunction with Singapore’s 53rd National Day, the ASEAN Flute Festival will be held during the second week of August 2018, with its main activities taking place in the Arts and Cultural District of Singapore.

 

The theme of the Festival is the limitless flight of a bird, a recurring motif in traditional flute music across various ASEAN cultures. In numerous parts of Asia, different species of the bird such as the crane, the peacock and the sparrow are symbols of exemplary qualities such as purity, passion, elegance, longevity or happiness, and the journey of a bird is metaphorically expressed in the music played by a flute. Via this theme, we hope to juxtapose the diverse cultures of Asia through their traditional music as well as highlight the intricate relationship between culture and Mother Nature.