updated June 27th, 2008Part 2. Interview with Ms Yeoh Jun-Lin, Artistic Director of the PWMF
I have been familiar with Ms Yeoh Jun-Lin’s work as the prime mover and driving force behind the highly successful Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF), now into its 11th year and the equally popular Miri International Jazz Festival (MIJF).
At the outset, let me state clearly that I am a big fan and have tremendous admiration for this lady who has put
Jun-Lin has since moved on from both RWMF and MIJF to explore further opportunities and thus initiated the Genting International Jazz Festival (GIJF), where I finally got a chance to meet her. She brings much needed street cred to the PWMF.
Asked for the secret to her success, Jun-Lin casually shrugs it off to her obsessive-compulsive nature, the need to be involved in every single stage of preparation and to give “600%” to ensure not only success but to strive for perfection.
To give you an indication of how hard this lady works, she starts preparing a year in advance (2 years would be better, she says) scouring for the ideal venue and traveling worldwide attending music expos, workshops and other festivals, and then sifting through an average of 500 music CDs and band biographies to short-list the finalists that will appear in her shows.
To make things even more complicated, she has to ensure that each band is truly unique and thus it is difficult to compare apple to apple as there is no standard benchmark. This is where Jun-Lin scores as her expertise and experience kick in to guide her in her final selections. Those who have attended any of her events know that she has consistently delivered world class entertainment.
Throughout the interview, Jun-Lin very politely and steadfastly deflected my recognition of her considerable achievements, preferring instead to highlight her crew and praised them for the sheer amount of work put into each event that she organizes.
She also credited her family as her inspiration, bemoaning the fact that she works “horrendous hours” and doesn’t get to spend as much time with them as she would like to. To relax, she enjoys dancing.
Jun-Lin is on the ball all the time, flitting around the site to oversee every single aspect of the daily set-up, sharing the heat, rain, minor emergencies and other difficulties endured by her crew. She sleeps as little as them while on the job, and earned my respect when she politely declined my offer to pack “Penang’s best Nasi Kandar” for her, stating that she would eat the same food as her team did.
Emcee Hendrick Foh said he was amazed by her professionalism. “I don’t know where she finds all that energy”.
Interviews with some of her staff (who shall remain nameless as promised) revealed that they too have a great amount of respect for her. “She pushes herself so hard so how can we let her down?” said one muscular and bare - chested roadie.
When I asked another guy about discipline problems and the possibility of “recreational medicine” being used among them, he paid Jun-Lin the highest compliment. “Boss work so hard to make this. She is one of us. No way we are going to make her “kecewa” (Bahasa Malaysia for "to let her down").
images by Johan Nasir
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