“Echo Slam” Drum Convention 2018

            In 2018, it is the 30th anniversary of the 24 Festive Drums and the 10th anniversary of the founding of the UTM drum team. The committees therefore sincerely hope to host a grand performance to celebrate it. With the sponsorship and assistance of the Culture and Arts Department, the 24th Festival Drums of UTM will be holding their first convention in 2018. This convention is named "Echo Slam". It is hoped that the drum team will be able to be passed on ten years afterwards. In the meantime, the origin of our name of the convention is to remind people not to forget the culture inherited by the sages and to continue to the next generation.  

Goal: To promote 24 Festive Drums and let other races to know more about 24 Festive Drums and its cultural background.  

            IIn UTM, there is a large number of students (about 20,000), including three major races and nearly 3,000 of international students. Therefore, we have more advantages than other drum teams in promoting this Chinese culture. This convention will also give all ethnic groups the opportunity to enjoy the performance of the 24 festive drums, promote cultural exchanges among all the ethnic groups and enhance mutual understanding. Furthermore, the drummers can also enhance their skills through this convention and strive for excellence.  

Drum Convention Highlights 

               At the beginning of 2018, the committees of the drum team had started to plan for the convention to ensure the convention runs smoothly. This convention contains many highlights, including:  

• Wonderful performances  
• 1 Malaysia Dancing Show  
• 1 Malaysia Drum show  
• Speech from one of the founders of 24 Festive Drums - Mr. Xiao Man   
• Malay Emcee  
• Bilingual 24 Festive Drums Exhibition  
• Merchandise  
• Lucky draw  

Rome was not built in a day 

            In conclusion, this convention is of great significance to the members. Not only this is our first performance, it also represents the efforts of all the drum team committees. Looking back at the ten years of its founding, our drum team has undergone many ups and downs, such as the lack of coaches, training venues and the gradual reduction of new students, etc. However, it eventually reached the level of today with the contribution of all the drummers of UTM and there is a gradual growth of number of the members now. Hereby, we hope that all enthusiasts can generously help us to hold the first convention of the UTM Drum Team so that the drummers can perform while promoting the 24 Festive Drums  

TIMELINE OF ''ECHO SLAM'' DRUM CONVENTION 2018

The picture below is our project timeline starting from Febuary 2018 until May 2018. we hope the timeline can explain clearly the idea on every moment of us as the committeee are working on.

BUDGET PLAN 

In aspiring to perform a good quality of drum convention to not  disappoint our audience,  the minimum budget plan of our project is listed at below: 

Risk and Challenges

• Public Contributions are the Backbone of the Arts and Culture

            As we all know, Malaysia is a multiracial nation and every races has its unique cultural heritage, which makes Malaysia a famous and unique country. Hence, the competition of cultural heritage is inevitable. Nowadays, the power of the culture is deeply rooted in the nation's vitality, creativity and cohesion, and become more vital in comprehensive national strength and international competitiveness. Therefore, the development of cultural and arts in the country is indispensable. However, Malaysia has lower cultural and artistic allowances compared to other advanced countries. In addition, the budget given by the Government to Local University was cut in half, thus the actual amount of subsidy that assigned to the Ministry of Culture was getting lesser. Due to all these factors, cultural heritage is also faced with the problem of inadequate funding. Moreover, our drums are timeworn and some of them are no longer used, therefore we do not have enough drums to practice, enhancing our skills and in the end we might not even be able to mention about cultural heritage anymore. For this reason, we hope that you will support us, so that we can raise funds to buy new drums and improve our drum team.  

• The heart of every dream is a legacy of the heart  

            As Johor is the place of origin of 24 Festive Drums, so we are surrounded by many outstanding drum teams. As a result, it is extremely difficult to stay afloat in preparation for our events. However, we are determined to hold our first convention, to show our Chinese cultural heritage to all the audiences, especially our fellow Malay friends and Indian friends. Despite our struggle with studies, we still work hard for cultural heritage, as this is our passion. 

Please support our convention and let us have the opportunity to create a platform to introduce 24 Festive drums, improving our skills, therefore we can move our UTM 24 Festive Drums team to another glorious peak. We truly appreciate for your generosity. At the same time, we sincerely invite you to come and enjoy our show. Thank you.