By Andy Chua

SIBU: A Maori cultural troupe from New Zealand will be here to perform at the Borneo Cultural Festival (BCF) 2009.
The presence of the troupe was based on the theme of the BCF which is Beauty in Ethnic Diversity, Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) Deputy Chairman, Daniel Ngieng said.
It was the council’s intention by inviting the troupe here to highlight some local production as well as some foreign ones, he said.
Speaking at a press conference after chairing a meeting for the event yesterday, he said the Council was confident that BCF  2009 would be a grandeur event for the town as it was also jointly promoting the Visit Sibu Year this year.
Daniel said this year’s BCF would be the eighth in the series and would take place from July 3-11 at the Town Square.
Also as usual every year, the BCF would still have the five components of community pavilions, cultural exhibition belt, trade and exhibition festival (Tradex), main stage performance and the BCF organisation.
The community pavilions included the Mandarin, Malay/Melanau and Dayak festivals. All these pavilions would have their respective traditional food and drink stalls plus some interactive activities.
The cultural exhibition belt consisted of photography, art drawing and painting and Chinese calligraphy, he said.
“Tradex is a special zone for trade, commerce and their related activities. It will include some special stage shows which are related to trade, commerce and a lot of funs,” he said.
The main stage, he added shall include a three-night stage performance which would  introduce variety shows from local as well as foreign cultural troupes.