Taking place in Gili Trawangan, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), the Lombok Writers Festival 2022 was officially held from March 9-10.

The festival, organized by the digital information platform IDN Hoursopened on Wednesday with remarks by NTB Governor Zulkieflimansyah, IDN Hours editor Uni Lubis and Minister of Public Enterprises (SOE) Erick Thohir – the latter delivering his speech virtually.

Born from an idea shared by Zulkieflimansyah and IDN Hours, the writing festival was a spin-off of the annual Indonesian Writers’ Festival (IWF). It was organized with the aim of providing training related to content production and optimization, especially for young Indonesians from NTB.

bring the theme #ExplorAsikNTB (discover NTB with joy), Lombok Writers Festival 2022 invited young writers to promote NTB through workshops and writing competitions.

The two-day event saw diverse participants consisting of students from local secondary and university schools, from the State Vocational High School (SMK) 2 Tanjung to Muhamaddiyah Mataram University.

“The hope is that the Lombok Writers Festival can become a regular event at NTB and will train more young Indonesians to become writers who can present the many events that take place at NTB,” Zulkieflimansyah said in his speech.

Meanwhile, Uni Lubis said the festival was an effort to educate the public. “[It is] a learning space for young Indonesians, especially in NTB, so that they are able to promote the potential of NTB through writing.

“The role of writers in the era of technological transformation and digitization is very much needed, especially in the creative industries,” said Erick Thohir during his speech. He also hoped that attendees could write productively about Lombok, especially Mandalika’s Pertamina International Circuit. The region will host the 2022 MotoGP Indonesia Grand Prix, which will be held from March 18-20.

The 2022 Lombok Writers Festival also included talk shows throughout its two-day run from speakers including food designer and food writer Kevindra Soemantri and renowned travel writer Trinity.

The entire festival is accessible to watch on IDN Hours‘ Youtube channel.