Brilio.net/en - To those of you who arent familiar with Kaligono, it is a village located in Purworeji Regency, Central Java. In fact, it represented one of Indonesias top ten growing villages in 2014. On Sunday, January 31, 2016, Kaligono village hosted a durian-eating competition as part of a festival not only to raise awareness for its homegrown durians, butan effort to boost tourism as well. Annual tourism data shows the number of tourists visiting Kaligono village has been on the rise ever since the competition was held in 2012.
Over 300 participants from multiple cities in central Java and Yogyakarta took part in this festival. After a morning briefing, they were all allocated to their respective groups, with each group comprising of ten people. It started off with the preliminary round where all contestants were required to eat as much durian as they could within 2 minutes. The winners from each group then progressed to the finale to compete for glory, but this time the time limit increased to 5 minutes.
As part of the festival, the organizers raised funds through donations. Participants were also encouraged to donate their homegrown durians to promote its quality to the public. The contest came to a close when the winners were awarded with sponsored gifts such as televisions and mountain bikes. To all you durian eaters, watch out for the next durian-eating contest- you might just be the next champion!
(Reported by Sahil Nathani)