Hey guys! This is a long overdue post, but as the saying goes, better late than never, right? 🙂
When the Boy came to visit KL last month, I brought him to RIUH, a monthly curated platform featuring pop-up stores, food stalls, creative workshops, shows and live performances. Up until recently, it was held at APW Bangsar, but they switched up the venue this time. Working with local developer YTL Land, the historic, abandoned Sentul Depot was transformed into an edgy, creative space:
Located within the grounds of Sentul Park, the depot dates back to 1905, where it was once one of the finest engineering workshops in the world, serving the Federated Malay States Railways and then KTM until the early 2000s. It was then abandoned for years, before being revived by YTL Land. I really like how cavernous the space is – and the fact that they left some of the buildings untouched to give it that raw, edgy feel.
An old building facade that was partially restored.
There’s plenty of space – more than 200,000 square feet of it – and some parts were not open to the public for the festival, but still made for great photos. The depot features numerous brick buildings and metal sheds, which were previously used as railway depots, engineering workshops and storage areas for steam and diesel locomotives and railway cars.
Crowds enjoying live performances
Since the event was in conjunction with Malaysia Day, there were loads of patriotic activities. (Above) an art exhibition depicting the faces of Malaysia made with what Malaysians love best – food.
A landscaped area just next to the main depot building. We ordered beef brisket and cheesy nachos from some of the food stalls. The nachos were pretty darn good.
A minibus. These were very popular up until the late 90s, after which they were replaced by newer, larger buses. They weren’t air conditioned and drivers drove with long shift sticks that looked like it was a hassle to get into gear.
Stalls selling all kinds of everything, from local titles from indie publishers, clothing from local designers, arts and crafts, handmade candles and soaps, bags, and more.
Intriguing light fixtures
Traditional wooden house replica.
Fun Malaysian phrases on T-shirts.
Foreign friends, let’s test your knowledge of “Manglish” and see if you can decode this:
“Aiseyman, so expensive! Can cheaper ah bos? I really pokai leh” 😀
An awesome video by the Riuh team.
The next RIUH, running from 17-18 November, will be held at a different location, namely 2 Hang Kasturi, which is where local urban regeneration organisation and think tank, ThinkCity, is headquartered. Would love to go but have to see if there’s time. One thing about RIUH is that there’s always so many people going that it’s notoriously difficult to find parking space anywhere – which is probably why they encourage people to take Grab.
