Lake Tondano in Minahasa Regency, North Sulawesi Province, has long been a magnet that attracts travelers to enjoy its beauty.
The Tourism sector began to squirm around Lake Tondano, destination spots and hangouts growing like mushrooms in the rainy season.
Recently, Lake Tondano has welcomed guests from outside the area, in a cycling event around the lake.
The event is indeed one of the agendas to attract tourist visits, the Minahasa district government also prepared an event called the Lake Tondano Festival abbreviated as Fesdaton.
This year's schedule will be held in November 2022.
Lake Tondano Festival is an event that is quite usur age in comparison to other tourism events.
Bert Toar Polii, Government Observer of Sulut revealed the prestige of the lake that holds many historical stories.
The picture of life and beauty of Lake Tondano is fully spoken by a beautiful princess from Tondano Village, Vivi Sumanti, through the song of Lake Tondano era in the early 1970s. A song that tries to capture love, wealth, power, and at the same time the natural beauty of Lake Tondano.
In 1996, The Governor of Sulut EE Mangindaan when presented with the concept of redevelopment of bunaken festival directly associated it with the Lake Tondano Festival.
According to Mangindaan, two ranges are to be achieved at once through the Lake Tondano Festival. First, it offers and sells the beauty of Lake Tondano which is completely different from the others, including the beauty of the lake surrounded by a number of hot springs that are in great demand by Japanese tourists.
Second, also through this festival, the community will be encouraged to restore the potential and wealth of the lake that continues to be degraded due to human negligence and greed.
The implementation of bunaken festival which began in 1991 along with the implementation of Visit Inodnesia Year, then decided as well as merged with the Lake Tondano Festival.
Thus, the name of the festival was changed to Bunaken Festival and Lake Tondano (Fesbudaton) which was officially carried out by the Minister of Postal Tourism and Telecommunications, Joop Ave at that time.
In a short time, the festival arena which was previously a small expanse of scrubs on the shores of Lake Tondano, at the northern end of Paleloan Village, Remboken Subdistrict, turned into a beautiful arena.
Each district and city placed a stilt house building of wood.
The main building that became the center of the activity was built facing east towards Lake Tondano.
In the center of the arena stands the traditional cultural arts performance of the four ethnicities that inhabit the Earth Nyiur Waving, each Bolaang Mongondow, Hulontalo (Gorontalo), Sangihe Talaud, and Minahasa.
Throughout the seven days of the festival, the location of the festival that is almost unknown to the person turned into an arena of meetings, discussions, cultural arts matches such as maengket dance, bamboo music, kolintang, and so on.
"That was first. But now, after 30 years have passed, Fesbudaton's central arena has turned into a small undergrowth. A number of buildings that are still standing stocky, seem unmanageable," he said.
Signs or remnants of the festival that had invited admiration from a number of ambassadors who attended the opening of the festival have disappeared.
In the present day, the Minahasa Provincial Government still continues to preserve the Lake Tondano Festival.
Head of Field no. 3s Tourism Development, Sulut Tourism Office, Judistira Siwu said, Lake Tondano Festival is currently on the Sulut tourist calendar.
Even now it is trying to compete in Kharisma Event Nusantara (KEN), a list of national tourism events in Indonesia.
"Being cured for KEN, hopefully it can pass into KEN," said Judistira Siwu.
As scheduled for the Lake Festival held in November 2022.
"The main activities are cultural arts and conservation," he said.
Special note on conservation issues, Lake Tondano is indeed in a condition threatened by its sustainability, due to siltation problems, and hyacinth weeds.
Minahasa Regency is one of the districts located in North Sulawesi province, Indonesia.
The capital of this district is located in the city of Tondano, with a district area of 1,025.85 km².
Minahasa regency has 25 subdistricts, 43 villages and 227 villages (out of a total of 171 subdistricts, 332 villages and 1,507 villages throughout North Sulawesi).
Currently Minahasa Regency is led by Regent Royke Octavian Roring and Vice Regent Robby Dondokambey.