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Lombok’s famous Bau Nyale Festival will take place in February this year.
“Bau Nyale”, literally meaning “to hunt Nyale” in the local Sasak language, is one of Lombok’s most important and popular festivals; a cultural tradition, deeply rooted in local legend, and unique to the island of Lombok.
The Nyale are a type of sea worm (Palolo) found in tropical waters in certain parts of the world, including Lombok. Once a year, the Nyale come to certain beaches around Lombok to spawn and for a few days, the seas are filled with wriggling sea worms in a variety of colours.
The sea worms are rich in protein and believed to be an aphrodisiac, and are considered a rare delicacy for Sasak people, who eagerly wade into the waters to catch them when they appear.
Bau Nyale takes place close to the full moon, and is celebrated in either February or March each year.
Over the years, the appearance of the Nyale has evolved into a major festival on the Lombok calendar of events.
The festival is centred around Seger Beach near Kuta on the south coast and features several days of exciting and fascinating cultural events including Peresean (stick fighting) competitions and Gendang Beleq, the big drums of Lombok.
There will be markets and other traditional performances, live music, parades and, at the peak of the festival, a fantastic dramatic theatrical re-enactment of the “Princess Mandalika” legend… an important story in the traditional Sasak history of the island.
The crowning of Princess Mandalika each year is an exciting time for local girls, who are going through the selection process this month to see who will win the honour of representing Lombok’s favourite historical princess this year.
Princess Mandalika will be crowned during the festival and has an important role in the parade that takes place every year. The parade also features traditional dance and music, with participants dressed in costumes from the different regions of Lombok.
The date of the festival each year is determined at the Sangkep Warige Bau Nyale, which is a traditional meeting of adat (customary) elders, indigenous groups, and community leaders. This is unique to Bau Nyale, when the implementation is not determined by the government but based on traditional methods of determining when the Nyale worms are most likely to appear.
Sangkep Warige will be held in early January and the date of the festival will be announced shortly afterwards. If you are in Lombok in February, this is a must-see event!