Celebrating 70 Under the Stars, with AIYA, CAUSINDY and ANZ

In celebration of Indonesia’s 70th birthday, the Australian Embassy held “Celebrating 70 Under the Stars” at Lucy in the Sky on 19th of August 2015 for the Australia Awards, AIYA and CAUSINDY alumni.

The event was definitely a festive one, accompanied by a tower of cupcakes decorated in red and white as well as none other than ex-VJ and Founder of the clothing line DAMN! I Love Indonesia Daniel Mananta as the MC for the night, and performances by both surgeon and famous singer Tulus and upcoming DJ Delizious Devon.

The event started off with a greeting from the Ambassador of the Australian Embassy Mr. Paul Grigson, followed by a short hello from Australia’s Minister for Justice Mr. Michael Keenan. Even the former Ambassador, Greg Moriarty made an appearance who is now Australia’s Counter Terrorism Coordinator.

As the guests waited for dinner to be served, Daniel did a great job with bringing back the memories of the days in Australia as he quizzed the guests with the Vegemite song, Australian slang, and also quizzed Australians on their knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia slang. Then the evening went on into the night with an incredible performance by Tulus and his band.

The 70th birthday actually fell on the 17th of August 2015, and this year’s birthday is particularly special, as the dates 17 + 8 + 45 was also equal to 70. On that day, the nation celebrated with flag-hoisting ceremonies, traditional gunny sack races, and cracker eating competitions. Perhaps those are ideas for next year’s AIYA events?

Thank you again to all the AIYA members who attended the event. The night was definitely one to remember. We hope to see even more faces at the next event.