You don’t get to help open an embassy every day …

On 13 July we were honoured to take part in the ceremony to formally open the new Indonesian embassy in London.

We played ‘welcome’ music while the guests arrived and took their seats – Ladrang Wilujeng to kick everything off, of course! Later we accompanied the fantastic dancers Wisnu Aji Setyo and Puja Ayu for the dance piece Bambang Cakil. And at the end of the ceremony we played a final set starting with a rousing rendition of Warung Pojok as the guests made their way into an adjoining room for some food.

Highlights of the evening? The dance piece (even though concentrating on playing means you don’t get to watch much of what the dancers are doing!), the Indonesian Foreign Minister coming over to say hi and sitting herself down next to Pete for a bit of a chat, hearing Coldplay’s Viva la Vida played on angklung (I’ll take the angklung version every time), and the delicious food!

We had a great time and were really honoured to have the opportunity to take part in such an auspicious event – many thanks to the embassy for inviting us to play!