Wolobobo Festival 2025 featured carnival, outdoor activities

The Wolobobo Festival in Ngada Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province has once again become part of the Tourism Ministry's Karisma Event Nusantara (KEN) program that curates local arts and cultural festivals.

Similar to Wolobobo Festival 2024, this year's edition of the festival highlighted the local coffee, bamboo, and woven fabrics potential as leading products that became the main attraction.

Wolobobo Festival 2025 took place on Aug. 7–9, 2025. Ngada Regency Tourism Office Ivan Botha stated that this year's Wolobobo Festival was centered at the Bajawa Art Center in Bajawa District, Ngada regency.

Although the festival has to adjust amid government austerity, Ivan stated that the festival organizers did not compromise the values ​​that have become iconic for the festival.

The opening of the festival was enlivened by a carnival from Kartini Park in Bajawa to the Bajawa Art Center. In addition, there was a mass dance, a fashion show, a 1,000-cup Flores Bajawa Arabica coffee tasting, and various other performances.

"For 2025, our first target is to establish the Art Center as a creative space for Ngada residents [by] making it publicly recognized and usable," he explained during a meeting in his office on Aug. 4, 2025.

Meanwhile, outdoor activities was centered at the Teretogo Bamboo Campus in Golewa District, Ngada Regency. There, visitors could buy products at the  with bamboo coins.

There was also education about bamboo to university students, schoolchildren, and other youths; as well as bamboo dialogues and a micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) exhibition.

Ivan also said that Wolobobo Festival 2025 enabled MSME products from groups that have not yet introduced their products to the public to reach a wider market.

"We are also involving MSMEs from outside Ngada, such as Larantuka, East Flores, Sikka, Ende, Nagekeo, and Manggarai. They have registered because they find the Wolobobo Festival quite appealing," Ivan explained.