Parktivity: Let’s Come Out and Play!

“Activate your public space” might seem strange as a slogan for a city with public parks and facilities that are in a good condition, and whose citizens need no encouragement to come out and enjoy public spaces. But this is not the case in Bandung. Neglected public facilities have become a “new normal”. City parks become too messy/ dark/ dangerous, or – if one looks pleasant enough – often inaccessible.

Agritektur station at Parktivity

It is due to this reason that a number of communities in Bandung are attempting to make the parks more pleasant; one of them is Culindra. This community runs a program called Parktivity, and the one that just happened this weekend, at Panatayuda Park, Bandung, was the second. In Parktivity, Culindra takes a city park and creates all kinds of events on a decided day, collaborating with several other communities. The events so far included a garage sale, a barter market, outdoor “board” games, live music, a workshop on garbage separation and water reservation (biophores), and so on. At this second Parktivity, Agritektur, a community that supports local farmers, held an open kitchen and an “outdoor fine dining” experience.

At their station, made of wooden crates and blackboards, Agritektur offered us to choose a menu, then let us pick our preferred (locally grown) ingredients (plated on a tray made of woven lidi/ palm leaf ribs). Some of the available ingredients were already sliced and portioned into cups: cherry tomatoes, capsicums, onions, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, salad leaves, mushrooms (2 varieties), chicken and beef. Eggplants and zucchinis were available in whole, to be picked out off a wicker basket. After being paid for, the ingredients were cooked by a couple of guys (majoring in tourism department of a university), and, once cooked, served on a lidi plate.

They have provided a long table covered with white tablecloth, decorated with pots of yellow flowers, so we could sit and chat and hover over someone else’s freshly-cooked dishes with different ingredients. This setting intrigued conversations and provide a sort of mixed experience between “dining” and “picnic”, and even “open air concert” if a live music happened to be performing on stage.

In this 2^nd Parktivity, improvement was apparent, despite some hiccups, which should be handled with few difficulties in the next events. The impact – to urge people to use neglected parks – might not yet be obvious, but we won’t find out if we don’t start somewhere. So, let’s come out and play!