Celebrating Festivals, Riau Provincial Government Budgets IDR 575 Million For Path Pacu Festival Prizes

A number of track participants while competing hard to reach the finish on the annual agenda were shocked by the Kuantan Singingi Regency Government in collaboration with the Riau Provincial Government. (Doc. BETWEEN/HO-Humas Riau Provincial Government)

PeKANBARU - Pacu Jalan Festival, the annual agenda in Kuantan Singingi Regency (Kuansing), Riau, will be held on August 21-25, 2024. To celebrate the event, the Riau Provincial Government provided IDR 575 million prizes for the winners.

"The allocation of hundreds of millions of prizes is more to enliven the runway festival that has been set by the government as part of the integral of the original Indonesian Takbenda National Cultural Heritage, as well as the runway to become the agenda of the National Kharisma Event (KEN) of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy," said Head of the Riau Tourism Office, Roni Rakhmat to reporters in Pekanbaru, reported by ANTARA, Saturday, July 13.

According to Roni, to preserve this cultural heritage, the Indonesian government supports the Path Pacu Festival in Kuantan Singingi and promotes the importance of the festival to the community. Pedestrians come from the surrounding community who have previously also undergone sub-district-level selection.

He said the path runway culture must be preserved and certainly does not involve participants from outside, while for spectators please from local, national and foreign tourists.

"Therefore, the amount of aid for hundreds of millions is also for prizes for subsidies of Rp. 1 million for each route. The Kuantan Singingi Regency Government also needs to improve supporting facilities so that tourists who watch the Pacu Line are more comfortable, including repairing the sheet pile on the river so that tourists feel comfortable," he said.

Based on data from the Kuansing Culture and Tourism Office (Disbudpar), at the Pacu Line Festival held 23-27 August 2023, there were 1,719,952 tourist visits to Kuantan Bay with billions of rupiah in circulation, calculated from trade transactions from the Kuansing Regency Government fostered MSMEs, Baznas Kuansing and OKOC as many as 750 people.

In addition, 2,323 other traders with an average turnover per day reached more than IDR 2 million-IDR 4 million. The lane activity or "competitive boat / canoe" also had a double impact on hotel room occupancy rates, homestays, restaurants, souvenir traders,

Roni explained that the Pacu Line was originally a means of transportation along the Batang Kuantan River from Hulu Kuantan to Cerenti at the mouth of the Batang Kuantan River. Because at that time land transportation had not yet developed. People market local fruits, sugar cane by boat.

"The Pacu Line attraction started with firing the carbit cannon 3 times, deliberately being used so that the Pacu Line participants could hear clearly the signal from the committee, because the runway was quite wide while thousands of spectators who watched the race cheered," he said.