Kota Kinabalu: What sets the Sepilok Jazz Festival apart from other musical events in Malaysia and around the world is its objective of raising funds for sea turtle conservation work on Libaran Island, Sandakan.
To ensure the festival aligns with this objective, the musical event is held at the Rainforest Discovery Centre, next to the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre and the Bornean Sun Conservation Centre.
Friends of Sea Turtles Education and Research (FOSTER) president Alexander Yee said Sepilok was chosen as the venue mainly because it has a world-renowned rainforest area, positioning the festival as a nature-based experience.
“And, plus, it is also the gateway to Walai Penyu Conservation Park Libaran ,” said Alexander, who is gearing up for the fifth Sepilok Jazz Festival 2026 on Sept 4 and 5.
He is the main organiser of the festival.
The other reason was the logistical support, with a restaurant and accommodation already available within the area, he added.
Over time, he said the event had expanded to feature more local musicians through the Bakat Sepilok Jazz competition, where music schools around Sabah were invited to send their students to compete.
All the competitors went through stringent judging by Malaysian jazz pianist and composer Wilson Quah from Penang and local musician Ian Baxter, who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in the United States.
The top three winners in the student and open categories secured tickets to perform at Sepilok Jazz, he said.
To further develop local jazz talent, Alexander said they had signed a three-year agreement with Singaporean jazz pianist, vocalist, composer and educator Jeremy Monteiro as their technical adviser.
Alexander said efforts to invite jazz musicians to perform at the festival had grown steadily, from nearly 30 musicians in the early years to 105 this year.
Attendance had also grown from a humble 130 people to 2,200 last year, with 4,500 targeted this year.
Thus far, they had been actively promoting the festival to attract more audiences through Tourism Malaysia, major hotels in Sandakan, online booking platforms and a collaboration with Malaysia Airlines, which offers a 10 per cent discount, he said.
Various promotional efforts had also been underway to woo more people, including a partnership with Borenos Fried Chicken, which offers discounted prices when tickets are bought through its platform.
“So far, we have sold just one-quarter of our targeted numbers, as you know, people in Sabah always do and plan things at the last minute,” he said.
On the general perception that young people do not appreciate jazz, he said it was not true, as 95 per cent of those who turned up for the competition were aged below 45.
The competition showed that there were many promising musicians emerging in Sabah, particularly in Sandakan and Kota Kinabalu.
Thus, Bakat Sepilok Jazz had provided a platform for them.
“Within the next five or six years, we should be able to see these aspiring musicians maturing in their performance and experience, and definitely, the music scene will change,” he said.
“And this year, we have moved it to the Rainforest Discovery Centre, but to the new amphitheatre area. At any one time, we should be able to have standing space for close to 3,000 people,” he said.
He said special guest musicians Shila Hamzah, an award-winning singer, and Jeremy Monteiro would appear on Sept 5.
“If the musicians coming in this year were to charge us their usual fees, I think we couldn’t afford them.
“Musicians like Shila and Jeremy give us a huge discount on their fees because they see that this event is very much linked to the sea turtle conservation work,” said Alexander.
The musicians had been invited to visit the turtle conservation island in Libaran, the orangutan rehabilitation centre, while the Italian group would go on a day trip to Kinabatangan, he said.
“We want those who participate in this event, talking about the musicians, to leave Sepilok Jazz having performed there and become ambassadors for Sabah.
“They will know that Sabah is blessed with good flora and fauna. They will know about the sea turtle conservation work that we are doing,” he said.
“They will also learn about the orangutan rehabilitation activities, as well as the Sun Bear Conservation Centre. They would have visited these places, and when they go away, they will talk about them,” he said.
“This is also another way to show them that we are doing the real thing to promote tourism. This is a different approach,” he said.
“We want to draw attention to the conservation effort through the popular platform of music,” he added.
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