The story
Meti Kei Festival in Kei Islands
Meti is a genuine extreme low-tide phenomenon around September and October in Maluku's Kei Islands, when the sea recedes over reef flats for traditional fish and shellfish harvesting. Festival Pesona Meti Kei is a government-organized cultural event layered onto this natural event, drawing visitors partly for the nearby Ngurtafur sand spit, though documentation of the organized festival itself is thin compared to the tidal phenomenon.
Meti is the local Kei Islands term for an extreme neap-tide low-water event, occurring around September and October, when the sea recedes dramatically over the reef flats surrounding the islands, exposing wide stretches of sand and shallow water that villagers have traditionally used to harvest fish, shellfish, and sea cucumber by hand.