Aceh 2025 GAYAIN Festival Opened By Menbud, Affirms Aceh Of The Archipelago Islamic Art Center

Minister of Culture Fadli Zon when playing traditional Acehnese musical instruments. (IST)

BANA ACEH - The 2025 Aceh Indonesian Cultural Movement Festival (GAYAIN) was officially opened by Minister of Culture Fadli Zon at Blang Padang Field, Banda Aceh, Monday (24/11). This cultural movement-themed event confirms the position of Aceh as the center of the art of Islami Nusantara.

Menbud Fadli assessed that the 2025 Aceh GAYAIN festival is an important space to revive the roots of a strong-rooted Islamic culture in Aceh. He emphasized that this activity is not a ceremony, but a real work to strengthen tradition, creativity, and cross-community collaboration.

"I appreciate the spirit of gotong royong all elements of Aceh. This festival is proof of the collaboration between the government, schools, communities, and the younger generation in guarding the cultural goal," said Fadli.

According to him, Aceh has big capital as a meeting point for Islamic culture combined with the diversity of the archipelago. He gave an example of the Seudati tradition, shalawat, and various Acehnese oral art as wealth that must be maintained and developed.

Banda Aceh Mayor Illiza Sa'aduddin Djamal emphasized that Aceh's cultural identity cannot be separated from Islamic values. He called the GAYAIN Festival a place to preserve poetry, dance, ethnic music, and oral traditions of ancestral heritage.

The 2025 Indonesia Aceh Cultural Movement Festival took place on November 24'26 and was filled with musicalizations of poetry, traditional dances, reading of the Nusantara Sajak, and the Collaborative Ethnic Music Ansamble. A number of studios and artists also performed, including the Saleum Studio, Cit Ka Geuntung Studio, Sukamosa, HNS, and Harmoni of Banda Aceh.

The opening was marked by a rapai recovery by the Minister ofbud and his staff, followed by the Collosal Dance in the collaboration of the School Entrance Artist Movement (GSMS) involving 400 students from various schools. The Mayor of Banda Aceh also read the poem Cakra Donya.

This event was attended by a number of Acehnese figures and the ranks of ministries. The Minister ofbud closed his remarks by emphasizing the importance of building continuity between culture and the creative economy in order to provide people's welfare. If the culture goes upstream, then the downstream is the creative economy, tourism, and MSMEs," he said.