The story
Sriwijaya Festival in Palembang
Sriwijaya Festival, run annually by South Sumatra's provincial government since roughly 1993 based on edition numbering, honors the historical Sriwijaya maritime kingdom. Held in mid-to-late June at Benteng Kuto Besak, a historic riverside fort in Palembang, it brings performances from all seventeen regencies and cities of South Sumatra, alongside boat-decorating contests and promotion of regional coffee and tenun textiles.
South Sumatra's provincial government runs Sriwijaya Festival each year to honor and promote the historical legacy of the Sriwijaya maritime kingdom, a major regional power dating back to roughly the seventh century, though the festival's exact founding year is not stated outright in available sources and must be inferred from edition numbering, a thirty-first edition in 2023 and thirty-second in 2024, implying a first staging around 1993.