The Band Lab has successfully concluded SIBOCFest 2026 — the Sarawak International Band, Orchestra & Choir Festival — the largest international music festival the organisation has staged in Kuching, held from 2 to 5 September 2026. Presented by The Band Lab (Persatuan Wind Orkestra Kuching) together with its Tokyo-based branch The Band Lab Japan, the four-day festival gathered 322 musicians, tutors and delegates — and, for the first time in its history, singers.

Built around the theme "Global Sounds, Sarawak Ground," SIBOCFest 2026 is the second edition of Sarawak's only international festival devoted to large-ensemble music-making. This year, it grew from two teaching faculties to three, adding a Modern Choir faculty alongside the established Concert Band and String Orchestra. That addition opened the festival to vocalists for the first time, bringing new voices together with the winds, strings and percussion, and lifting participation to 322 people on the ground, up from roughly 220 at the inaugural 2024 edition.

The festival drew musicians from far beyond Borneo. Of the 322 taking part, 267 came from Sarawak — 198 from Kuching and 69 from elsewhere in the state, including Bintulu and Miri — alongside participants from across Malaysia and a 33-strong international contingent, led by a 22-member delegation from The Band Lab Japan and tutors from Singapore, China, the Philippines and the Netherlands. Days 1 and 2 ran at the Faculty of Applied and Creative Arts (FACA), Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), with Days 3 and 4 held at Lodge Secondary School, Kuching.

Over four days, participants worked through sectionals, tutor-led lessons, full-ensemble tutti rehearsals and cultural exchange sessions before joining forces for the Finale Gala Concert on 5 September at Lodge Secondary School. Rehearsals and the concert were directed by Guest Conductor Mr Ken-ichi Watanabe, invited through the Hokkaido University of Education, a euphonium soloist and the first Japanese musician to win First Prize at the Leonard Falcone International Euphonium Competition. The String Orchestra faculty was presented in collaboration with the Euroasia Association of Performing Arts, one of Malaysia's most respected names in music education, while the concert band and choir were coached by an international faculty of specialist tutors. The concert closed with the world premiere of "Selamat Datai ke Bumi Kenyalang," a medley of Sarawak folk songs arranged for the festival by composer Yeo Chow Shern and performed by the full combined ensemble.

SIBOCFest 2026 reached well beyond the rehearsal rooms. A saxophone recital brought Singapore-based Michellina Chan — the first female Henri SELMER Paris Saxophones artist in South-East Asia — to the SIBOCFest stage. Under Community Kamek, the festival's community and heritage strand, participants took part in Sarawakian craft workshops and cross-band activities that put players from different schools, towns and countries together away from their instruments. And a new Technician Apprenticeship placed five aspiring local technicians alongside visiting Japanese repair technicians, passing on instrument repair and maintenance skills that rarely reach Sarawak.

Deliberately non-competitive, SIBOCFest keeps its doors wide open: there are no auditions, no ranking and no elimination, and Malaysian government school students and teachers take part free of charge. That inclusive design — serious, international-standard coaching offered without cost as a barrier — is central to what The Band Lab set out to build. The festival was proudly supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts Sarawak through the Sarawak Heritage, Arts and Culture Facilitation Fund and staged within the year of Visit Malaysia 2026.

More than a workshop, SIBOCFest 2026 confirms The Band Lab's standing as the organisation capable of convening an international festival on Sarawak soil — one that draws players from Japan and across Asia to Kuching, builds lasting musical friendships across borders, and puts Sarawak firmly on the map for concert tourism and large-ensemble music.