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- #considerthis
KL Festival 2026 kicks off this May, turning downtown Kuala Lumpur into a 26-day celebration of art, culture and public life. But beyond the celebrations, can culture-led initiatives meaningfully drive urban renewal and economic value? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Daniel Lim, Director of Urban Solutions & Lead of the Placemaking practice at Think City, and June Tan, Artistic Director of KL Festival 2026. KL Festival 2026 is organised by Think City and Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), and supported by the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Territories Department (Prime Minister’s Department).
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NewsTranscript
00:10Hello and good evening, I'm Melissa Idris. Welcome to Consider This. This is the show
00:15where we want you to consider and then we consider what you know of the news of the day.
00:19KL Festival 2026 kicks off this May, turning downtown Kuala Lumpur into a 26-day celebration
00:27of art and culture and public life. Now it's largely free and open to all and it invites
00:35people to rediscover KL in new and different ways. But beyond the celebration of it, the
00:42question we're asking tonight is whether culture-led initiatives can meaningfully drive urban renewal
00:48and economic value. And that's why we have our two guests today on the show. I'm delighted
00:53to introduce Daniel Lim, Director of Urban Solutions and the lead of the placemaking practice
00:58at ThinkCity, as well as Jun Tan, who is the Artistic Director of KL Festival 2026. Welcome to the
01:06show. Thank you so much for joining me. Jun, welcome back to Consider This. Daniel, welcome
01:10for the first time. So I'd like to begin, maybe we can tell us a little bit about KL Fest
01:15and what to expect. Jun, as Artistic Director, tell us.
01:18I think you can expect a lot of joy. Oh, lovely. And I think we need a little bit of
01:23that
01:23now, seeing the current situation, like world issues and all this. It's really a festival,
01:29a platform to bring together all the local arts and culture activities. And we also have
01:35invited international guests. So they will be performing shows. So some of them will be ticketed,
01:41as you mentioned, but 90% of them will be free. So for example, we will have four major,
01:46very publicly accessed events on Datta Ramadeka. We're going to kick off with a jogheton.
01:52A jogheton where, you know, you have to register and unfortunately registration is closed because
01:57it's happening this Saturday, 9 of May. You sign up for this jogheton and you are supposed
02:03to bejoghet nonstop for 90 minutes. Oh, wow. And the last 20 minutes, the judges will come
02:10and judge you and award you the best joghetter. Oh my gosh, that's amazing. Yeah. So if you
02:16don't feel like you can tahan 90 minutes, never mind. Just bring your family and friends
02:20and joghet at the side. So there'll be live music, there'll be, you know, there'll be bands,
02:24there'll be DJ. And we have a special guest star, Aisha Retno, who's coming to perform.
02:29And we suspect she might be singing a joghet song. That sounds quite joyful. So it's 26 days
02:36of different performances. So tell us what it took to kind of sustain a 26-day festival.
02:47Do we have enough, I guess, performances or content, if I may use that word?
02:54I think this is where Malaysians will be surprised because there are artists and there are artistic
03:00events. A recent report by CloudJoy, which is the ticketing platform, mentioned that over like,
03:06was it, I can't remember, 5 million sales like was driven through their platform only in the Klang
03:13Valley. So there is a business of people buying tickets to watch shows in an environment that's
03:20supposedly not very supported. And, you know, you try and discourage your children to take the
03:25arts. Why don't you go into like engineering or banking instead? But no, we have a lot of artists.
03:31And what KL Festival's job made easier is just to create this platform for these artists to actually
03:38come and do their shows. So for example, like two, three months ago, we started with this event
03:44called Polata. So we have a bunch of like fashion students to go into Jalan Tuanko of the Raman,
03:51interview the tailors, not the people who sell the clothes, but the ones upstairs who actually make
03:57the clothes, the baju for you, spend time with them and then come out with this exhibition and
04:02installation, which will be at Samoa House. So it's just merging the kind of traditional stuff that's
04:08been going on with actually younger people who really want to be an artist and how do they tap
04:14into this heritage and what new things can come up? I love that you're using that Samoa House building
04:19as well, which is very, you know, textile centric, isn't it? So Samoa House is one example. We also have
04:25like the Go Down, we have Rimwa Tangsi, we have Dataran Medika itself. So every weekend there's something.
04:31The second weekend, we're going to have Wayang Women live on Dataran. This is the Wayang Kulit performance
04:36by an all-female, Southeast Asian female troop doing Wayang Kulit on Dataran underneath the flagpole
04:43and they're going to talk about hantus. That is all the favourite things of Malaysians in one show.
04:51Outdoor hantu night. Fantastic. Daniel, as you know, from Think City, this is a Think City initiative.
05:00So talk to me a little bit about that, what the perspective is, because this is, as June mentioned
05:07in the beginning, we all need a little bit of joy at this really challenging time. This is a time
05:11of
05:12where Malaysians are bracing for economic headwinds. So I think there are a lot of people who might be
05:17questioning if it's the right time to be spending, public spending on these types of endeavours.
05:23So what's the perspective of Think City? What's the economic case for spending on festivals
05:30like this? Sure. Thanks. So in Think City, we look at festival as a tool for placemaking and also
05:39economic development or even participatory process. So as June has mentioned just now, the festival
05:44is a platform where artists get to come together and, you know, really showcase their products
05:50or services, etc. But I think often also another thing that's not talked about is actually audience
05:56creation as well. And in times like this, you know, there are a lot of emphasis on mainstream
06:03issues and challenges that we have to deal with. But we also not to forget about the creative sectors
06:09and festivals like this are able to provide jobs for the creative sectors rather than just hand out.
06:16And also by activating this, you're activating the cities. So local economies, smaller businesses
06:22and all can benefit from it, right? Imagine, you know, 5,000, 10,000 people coming over in a weekend
06:29and the local businesses can really benefit to it. And then they can really, you know, capture some value,
06:35extend working hours, you know, really also be able to demonstrate, you were saying about
06:40hantu and night time activities. But think about it that what about downtown KL that you know today,
06:46it's also active till midnight and shops are open beyond normal operating hours and all those. So all these
06:53really also help to spur economic development as well. Is that what you mean when you say
06:57activating the city? Because I love that phrase, activating the city. We don't think about
07:02different ways KL can come to life for us, other than it being maybe like a commercial centre.
07:12Actually, I'm quite curious to know about your role in ThinkCity, Daniel. What is placemaking and how
07:18does ThinkCity think about that, maybe even using the lens of of KL Fest?
07:23So I've been with ThinkCity since we started in Georgetown, in Penang. Placemaking is actually an
07:30approach that ThinkCity adopts. We learned it from Project for Public Spaces in New York, when we were
07:37first introduced about this. Then I was very lucky to be given an opportunity to learn from them. I worked
07:43for our colleague over there, Cynthia Nikutin, that has now retired. But then through the years working on it
07:50and working on Georgetown, then I realised that a lot of these philosophy are very Western case studies.
07:57A lot of these approach are very Western driven because it came from there, right? But for example,
08:05in the US or in the West, lunchtime, having a sandwich in the Padang in the middle of the field
08:12is normal, right? It's not going to happen here, right? And if you really look into the Padang in
08:18Malaysia or even in Southeast Asia, you realise that we tend to go in the peripherals. So really
08:24understanding that and redeploy the placemaking principle is what placemaking is all about. So
08:31it's all about a process, a participatory process. It's all about understanding the site,
08:36understanding people and then designing together with the people, implement the project together so
08:41that there's ownership and then the place is really active and functional because it's gone through
08:47a process. So for example, the festival is not just about bringing in the big shows, right? It's also
08:53working with the local community and the local businesses to be part of the festival because then
08:58what happens after the festival, right? You want this effort and initiatives to continue and it's really
09:03using the festival to showcase the potentiality of it, using the festival to really create audience,
09:11use the festival to really spur some economic development. Therefore, beyond the festival,
09:17maybe that's the care we will see in the future that is active 24 hours, you know, round the clock.
09:23I like that picture that you've painted. June, then your job is to create those audiences,
09:30right? Create memories. Is that difficult to translate something that is quite conceptual
09:37into experiences that people can feel on the ground, take away, maybe change the way they look
09:43at Kuala Lumpur as a city? And this year's theme is memory and tomorrow. So tell me a little bit
09:50about
09:50incorporating that theme with the idea of let's make this into a tangible experience for city dwellers.
09:57Yeah, that's a great question, actually. And very quickly, a little bit about the theme,
10:01memory and tomorrow. It really came about, you know, just me thinking about KL. And we all know it's
10:06a city that's sitting between two rivers. But actually, what does that mean? So, you know,
10:11I was thinking like, to me, it meant like on your left and on your right are these two bodies
10:16of waters.
10:17They are constantly flowing. There's constantly like in flux and change. So you are being surrounded by change.
10:24And in a way, the city doesn't really judge you because new water is coming in every day.
10:30That's why suddenly you have otters or even buaya suddenly, right? It's a city that surprises you.
10:36But at the same time, there are pockets of memories, pockets of lived histories in KL.
10:44That just got reopened, used to be an old courthouse. The businesses that have been around.
10:50These are all pockets of memories in this surrounded by flux and change. And that flux and change should
10:56be represented like tomorrow. So then the sense of memory and tomorrow. And, you know, I like to
11:04caution it's not past and future because you can have a past, but no sense of memory of it. And
11:09we all kind
11:10of, no, there's a future, but no sense of a tomorrow. So this is the provocation I gave to
11:14the artists and the audience and for you to think about KL when you come down. And your second question
11:20about translating and it also relates to what Daniel was saying about activation. You know, how do you
11:25see KL in different lights? So, you know, when I was calling for proposals and asking people to think of
11:29stuff, we came up with like 11 walks. And you never see KL as, you never consider KL as a
11:37walking city,
11:37right? You don't even think, okay, I'll go down KL and walk. In fact, that's the, it could be the
11:42opposite that you want to do. But some of these walks are really fascinating. We have an otter walk,
11:48try and spot the otter. We have a walk about the secret trees of KL. So, and I was like,
11:54you know,
11:54guys, these are fantasy walks, right? Where are the trees? Where are the otters? But you will have to go
12:00and
12:00sign up and see and discover it for yourself. There's a very interesting dance the walk where you actually go
12:06to
12:06different heritage sites. Then you find a little bit of a history of that and then do a basic step,
12:11a basic dance workshop to follow that. For example, you go to the Indian temple in Chinatown.
12:17They will teach you a little like, when you reach there, they'll teach you like Indian steps and then
12:21they move and teach your Joe gate. So you dance the walk. So it's really cool. And then there's one
12:25walk
12:26about the river itself. Where is it today? Like under which building is it flowing? So you're tracing it,
12:34you know, this kind of invisible route of the river that is not seen. So these are really very
12:39fascinating walks. And these are all the different, different ideas that people have come up and to
12:45actually show like KL is actually, it's very happening. And myself being part of being an artist
12:52director, I had to go down to KL a lot. And it is really a, it is really a platform.
12:58So a lot of people
12:59say, you know, where are the stages? And downtown KL, there's not a lot of stage, there's no like,
13:05there's only one Pangun Bandaraya but that's being under renovation currently. So there's not a lot of
13:09like theatre stages. But I would tell them there are a lot of actors. There are a lot of very
13:14interesting
13:14characters in KL and every day you meet someone different and a different group of people. So KL is
13:20surprising. I'm signing up for all of these walks, by the way. That's so curious, interesting to me.
13:27And I'm curious to know how you see KL and how you think people view KL before the festival and
13:35after
13:35the festival. And I do wonder because, you know, many of us, we go to KL, we work, we come
13:40back,
13:40we live in our suburban houses outside of the city. We don't know what the city looks like after hours,
13:45so to speak. How do festivals like this change people's experiences of a city? And I was wondering
13:53whether you have had experiences abroad going to festivals where they have, you know, big cities
13:59abroad where they have festivals like this. And what you would like people's perspective of KL,
14:04how people's perspectives of KL would change maybe after experiencing one of the 26 days of this
14:11festival. I'll start with you, Daniel. Yeah. I think if you look at downtown KL, 10, 15 years ago,
14:20it's very different from what it is today, right? Absolutely. Not many locals, you know,
14:26there's what Jun is saying, like, why would I go to downtown, right? And this is a similar story in
14:30Georgetown. I'm from, I grew up in Penang. I'm from Penang. Growing up, I never thought about going to
14:36Georgetown. I mean, like, not even in my radar or map, right? You just play around the neighborhood,
14:42you go around to Gurney Drive or whatever, but you're not, Georgetown is not in the equation,
14:47right? But, and I don't know, is it a job thing or whatever, but after UNESCO listing,
14:54and also me joining ThinkCity, I think I can really see the whole changes and difference that
14:59the locals are starting to come down because it's about celebrating your cultural identity. It's about,
15:04you know, going back to your roots and all those. And KL, those days, probably less because if you
15:10ask, you know, 5, 20 years ago, you ask anybody, you'll be like, oh, I'm from Ipo, I'm from Penang,
15:15from Johor, et cetera. But today, you know, after the migration had happened for a decade or so,
15:21you ask the younger generation that comes to KL and they're like, I'm from KL.
15:26I'm from KL itself. I was born and bred here. And that, you know, after one or two generations of
15:32that,
15:32then people start questioning, what are my roots? And the same thing I was describing about Georgetown
15:36is, you know, going back to Georgetown and realizing that, oh, you know, a few generations ago,
15:42my family was here, you know, at the jetties or whatsoever. And then now I'm in the suburb,
15:48totally forgot about it and re-celebrated. And I think similarly in KL, with more and more
15:53KLites are born and bred here, you know, after a few generations, people are going back to the roots.
15:58And downtown KL, as the confluence of the river is the starting point is where it all began.
16:04And today, if you go there, I think you can see a good mix of local and also visitors or
16:10foreigners,
16:11et cetera. And everybody with something for everybody is celebrating downtown KL. So I think that is very
16:18much what the festival could do is really magnify and highlight what is there to offer,
16:23being a platform for interaction. And also, I think, you know, of course, we can't forget about
16:30economic development because things need to sustain itself. And this gives it a little bit push
16:35because post-festival, that's the real test of time, right? To be able to continue.
16:39It's beyond the 26 days, isn't it? It's beyond the 26 days.
16:43Yes. Okay. June, how do you think the festival might change the way people perceive KL? And has
16:50it changed for other big cities that have held festivals like this?
16:55Well, actually, I mean, I was, I'm born in KL and I grew up here and I studied here and
16:59worked here
17:00all my life. So I'm very much a KL person. So I think one thing that's very unique and very
17:06heartwarming is the diversity that we have in KL and actually in Malaysia. And very quickly, you know,
17:12like just being part of a festival, going down to this thing. I've, I've always gone and bought
17:16flowers from this Indian lady. So a couple of weeks ago, as soon as I stepped through the threshold of
17:22the shop, she just shouted at the end of the shop, I'm more at Sudanai. Like, and you know,
17:28I kind of like, and because of the war, everything I knew where she was going to,
17:31like before I can even articulate, she's like, she's like, she's preempting you.
17:36Correct. And I was thinking like, there's nowhere else in the world would like a phrase like that
17:40be thrown at me in that kind of thing. Right. So this is the, this is us. This is us
17:46KLites,
17:46this is us Malaysian. And I think what, this is what we can show to the world. So for like
17:51first time
17:52people who come to KL, I think you'll be very struck by the diversity, struck by the kind of easygoing
17:58casualness of this diversity, not just in the food, but how we interact with each other.
18:05And if you are from Subang, never think of KL and why you want to come down. I think this
18:12mix of the
18:13old and new will be very interesting. And there's something a little peculiar about KLites. I just
18:19know how to describe it. You just need to come down to downtown KL and walk about and have a
18:23sense,
18:23a feel of that. Do you think, or have you noticed, um, that a change or how people behave differently
18:32in public spaces when public spaces are activated for, um, for the arts, for, for culture, the moments
18:39where you maybe have observed how people experience the city differently when public spaces like that
18:45are, you people, you bring people together to appreciate the arts. So two examples, like, you know,
18:52this Jogetton example, uh, when we announced it, I mean, we were oversubscribed. Amazing. Yeah. And
18:58actually, DBKL itself, um, uh, DBKL is actually the partner for KL Festival, uh, which is, by the way,
19:05also powered by Maxis. Um, the, the, they have events on Dataran some weekends. They have a performance-like
19:13culture show. Um, so I went down for one, uh, at night, um, and in the middle of the show,
19:18people
19:18at the side just stood up and started dancing, like, Joget and Ronggeng bersama, you know, just like
19:23that. And I, I feel like actually Malaysians like to dance. Yeah. They like, maybe, but maybe a bit shy,
19:29you know, like, you know, that other orang nak ajak, so it'd be like, terasi lah, if you suddenly stand
19:32up
19:33to, by yourself. But if you have an event like this, so I think Jogetton is kind of like the
19:37pool.
19:38People want to come down and dance together, kind of like clean fun. Um, and the other event that
19:43we have, uh, is Berkelah di Dataran. So bring your Tiffin, uh, on 23rd of May, uh, bring your
19:50painting basket, don't chill out. Don't bring your dog, bring your cat, you know, stuff like that
19:55to hang out on Dataran. And that also has gotten a lot of response from the younger people. Uh, like
20:01we've been seeing like the Gen Z's and the millennials, like, I think they just want to go and chill.
20:05Like they don't need to go and buy something. Berkelah was such a big deal for me growing up.
20:09Yeah. We, we really, that was a very Malaysian thing where we did that with our relatives on the
20:16weekend. We berkelah at some public spot. And I love to see that again for downtown KL. That would be
20:21wonderful.
20:22So we're starting at five onwards, so it's not so panas. And then I go into the night.
20:26The realities of living in Malaysia. And then there'll be a film screening, you know, um,
20:31Media Prima is sponsoring a film. Uh, so they'll be on Dataran. So you can watch a film, Berkelah.
20:36Yeah. The only thing we have to worry about, of course, is the rain. So I need to tell everybody,
20:40like, you know, we can't control the weather. So, but roll with it.
20:44But part and parcel of living here, right? Yeah, roll with it. Bring a biome, bring a raincoat,
20:47you know, and then, yeah. So then I have to ask the both of you. So you talked a lot
20:51about
20:51activating the city and audience creation. Uh, for ThinkCity, how will you keep up the momentum
20:58or build it through? So we're about to kick it off. Um, and then we have to build the,
21:04you have 20 odd days to build the momentum. Sure.
21:07And then you want to take it, continue that momentum post, um, event, post festival. How will
21:12you make sure that it, you are activating the city throughout and for the businesses, for, uh,
21:19people who have experienced the city. It's not a one-off experience, Daniel. Um, I think we are not at
21:25step one. Okay. In fact, uh, we have started this long way before, like in 2016, when 2019,
21:32the idea of Kuala Lumpur Creative and Cultural District was then, uh, incepted. And I think
21:37only in the recent year, it's been rebranded as Warisan KL. Um, so we are not at step one. Uh,
21:43today,
21:44there's more than 10 flagships, uh, project that's ongoing. So, um, there is the Tataran Merdeka,
21:50uh, very obvious. Uh, the festival is one of it, but there's also like Merdeka 118,
21:55there's also Masjid Jameh. So a lot of things are happening. Um, beyond the festival is really
22:01about, uh, keeping, keeping the activities ongoing, right? So it's about building, uh,
22:08building collective, building communities, about empowering and enabling them. Uh, so through
22:14ThinkCity, there's a grants program, uh, that helps to support, um, uh, small initiatives of projects.
22:22And that's one way of doing it. But it's also working with partners, uh, that could be corporations,
22:28uh, GLCs, cities, uh, DBKL agencies, et cetera, to really look at the city-wide curation and then
22:36push all the initiative towards, uh, a collective impact. So end of the day is having a collective
22:42impact so that everything, regardless is festival, public realm improvement, or even like, you know,
22:48uh, special projects or whatsoever that is going towards making KL a livable city.
22:53So it's not fragmented, right? That's a, you can see a concerted effort to that. Okay. And June,
22:58I'm going to end with you in the time that we have left. Um, where can we find out more,
23:04first of all, um, where can I sign up for the walks? And if other people are curious to know
23:09about
23:09what's available to them just around the corner, um, where can they find out more? And how will you,
23:17um, I guess, judge or determine if it's been a success, whether you think, you know,
23:25I've changed perspectives here. I've, I've done the best I can with this festival.
23:29Uh, I thought you were given that tough question to Daniel already, right? Yeah.
23:33I asked that, right. So, uh, the scorecard, um, you can find out about the festival at
23:38klfestival.com.my, uh, or follow us on Instagram, which is nice because you get all the updated stuff
23:44and you see everything that's happening. Um, how can, you know, you know, when I got this job as
23:51artistic director, the support from the artistic community has been like overwhelming. Like everyone's
23:57excited about this. And also like every time we describe the program, like people are so keen,
24:04like immediately want to sign up, want to join Jogheton, you know, think about what I'm going to wear
24:08this Saturday. Dance on the sidelines. Yeah. Like what I'm going to wear, I'm going to dress up. So
24:12really thinking about your, your, yourself in this space called KL and how can you bring your own
24:20creativity, your own imagination, uh, onto this platform that we are providing as KL
24:27festival. So seeing that in action already is very, a heartwarming for me, you know, like I said,
24:33like just ask for proposal, like 11 walks came back. I'm like, Oh, I'm glad you're thinking about
24:37this, you know? Um, and for example, on, uh, this Friday, you know, nine of May, we're having
24:44Irama Pusaka, uh, where we're showcasing, uh, the musical heritage of all the major groups in Malaysia.
24:50So we have Orchestra KL, Lee Rubber Chinese, uh, Lee Rubber Chinese Orchestra, uh, Gangsa Pura,
24:56Gamela Orchestra, who just won big at the Cameroonian awards recently last night. And then we have, um,
25:03uh, Ikam, uh, Indian ensemble. And we have, uh, Leslie, like a Sape Maestro from Sarawak.
25:10Wow. We're putting everybody on stage. Um, and because we're artists, we want to try and do things
25:15differently. We're trying to get them to play all at once. So I'm like, is it going to be Roja?
25:22Is it going to, no, will Hamdan talk to me next night? I don't know. So it's like, you know,
25:26do I get an email on Saturday morning? Yeah. But I've seen like, you know, we've been in these
25:33production meetings. Uh, everyone's been really like great with each other. Uh, some of the stereotypes
25:39that come up is very funny and cute. Like, you know, Oh, you know, let's put the Indians in front
25:43because they're quite tall, right? How are they? They might just be Bersila. They Bersila. Stuff like
25:47this, you know, and I, I mean, it's just, it's, it's, it's charming being, it's our charm, you know,
25:52because we're so diverse. Um, and yeah, can we make music together harmoniously? So we shall see, uh,
26:00in KL Festival. I have a hundred percent belief that we can make music together harmoniously.
26:06What a lovely metaphor to end on. Jean, thank you so much. Daniel, thank you for your time. I appreciate
26:11it.
26:11Looking forward to experiencing the city this month. Thank you for your, for being on the show.
26:16That's all the time we have for you on this episode of Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris,
26:20signing off for the evening. Thank you so much for watching and good night.
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