Madang’s Kangal festival on this month

IF you are in Madang next week with an incomplete travel itinerary, then put down the Ramu NiCo Kangal Festival as an event to attend.

The unique festival will be held at Bandit Village at the Kuibang show ground in Rai Coast District of Madang Province from Wednesday 24 October to Friday 25 October.

The festival is made possible by sponsor, Ramu NiCo Management (MCC) Limited, the developer of the multimillion kina Ramu nickel-cobalt project in Madang province.

Kangal Festival dancers during the 2011 event



Ramu NiCo obtained the festival naming rights, “Annual Ramu NiCo Kangal Festival” following its commitments towards preserving the unique Rai Coast culture.

Festival chairman and founder, Soge Dilambe from Bandit village was a proud man when he received sponsorship from Ramu NiCo to host this year’s festival.

“Ramu NiCo sponsored the festival in 2010, 2011 and this year as well. We appreciate the continuous support that helps preserve our dying culture,” Mr Dilambe said.

Mr Dilambe said that the festival will host more than 30 Kangal dancers from all over Rai Coast District.
Kangal is the word for feather in many of Madang’s 164 languages and can also refer to a headdress made of feathers.

“We will display three types of Kangal dances, one for the day and two for the night time. The sing-sing during the day is also associated with the practice of piercing noses and its Kangals are shorter,” Mr Dilambe said.

The features are fixed to combs that are worn in dancers’ hairs. The styles of the songs and dances are different. At midnight, the people dance the Kongkap and the dancers paint their legs black.

This is the moment when the magnificent Kangal, which is intricately woven into a circular shape with radiating colors of red, black and white, is displayed,” Mr Dilambe added.

The large Kangal is usually fixed to a pole the end of which is tied to the head of the dancer and covered with a skull cap.

Mr Dilambe said that the 2010 festival was held at Saidor station but later moved to Bandit where the setting is magnificent.

Although no tourists have been to the festival in the last two festivals, Mr Dilambe is happy this festival will see officers from the national cultural commission in Port Moresby attending.

Also invited and set to attend are Madang provincial chamber of commerce and other provincial leaders. He also thanked the Globe company in Madang for donating food items for prizes to the dancers, and Abel Computing for prizes as well.