Tourists Must Book In Advance To Watch Bali’s Most Famous Cultural Show

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Bali’s most famous cultural performance is selling out at record speed. With the nightly performance of the Kecak at Bali’s Uluwatu Temple now showing twice every evening, tourists who want to secure their seats in the amphitheater must book their tickets in advance.

The finely kecak performance tells the tale of the Hindu epic Ramayana. The story depicts the triumph of good over evil, and the show lid on at Uluwatu Temple is considered to be the best in the province.

The Kecak cultural performance is, in fact, a show designed for tourists. In its most original form, the Kecak is a trance ritual performed strictly for and with Balinese Hindus.

However, as tourism and international interest in Bali grew in the 1930s, painter, and artist Walter Spies worked with the highly regarded Balinese dancer Wayan Limbak to create a version of the ritual that could be performed to international audiences to offer a glimpse into Balinese culture without compromising the sacred trance ritual. 

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Fast forward nearly one hundred years, and the Kecak is a bucket-list activity for every first-time tourist to Bali.

Images of the audience and performers filling the Uluwatu Temple amphitheater at sunset have become a picture-postcard image of the island, and everyone wants to be able to have a seat at the most magical performance of them all. 

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Tourists planning upcoming trips to Bali are advised to book their Uluwatu Temple Kecak show tickets in advance to avoid disappointment.

Performance organizers have confirmed that shows are selling out night after night, even after the peak of the high season has passed. 

Speaking to the press, the Tourism Manager for Uluwtau Temple said that both the temple complex and the Kecak show are busier than ever before.

Wayan Wijana told reporters, “The Kecak show is always full from the first to the second performance.”

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He added, “The first performance starts at 6 pm to 7 pm [local time] and then continues with the second performance from 7 pm – 8 pm. Every day, these two performances are always fully booked.”

The family-friendly show is attended by a largely international audience, with tourists from Australia, India, and neighboring Southeast Asian nations making up the majority of each nightly attendance.

Uluwatu Temple is now seeing over 5,000 tourists a day, whereas just last year, the average visitor figure ranged between 3,500 and 4,000 a day.

Wijana told reporters that the Kecak shows add a further 2,000 visitors into the mix. He noted, “In one night, there are around 2,000 to 2,200 people watching the show. This proves that the Kecak Dance is still one of the attractions that is very popular with tourists.”

In the unlikely event that tourists miss out on the chance to see the Kecak performance at Uluwatu Temple, there are other cultural shows on offer across the Bukit Peninsula.

One of the most underrated cultural shows in Bali is the Devdan Show, which is performed at the Bali Nusa Dua Theatre. 

The show is performed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays and includes cultural performances not only from Bali but all across the Indonesian archipelago.

From Bali to Sumatra, through Java to Kalimantan and Papua, during the exhilarating show, audiences are transported across history, culture, and landscapes and are immersed in the stories of one of the most diverse countries on earth. 

Kecak performances can also be booked at Tanah Lot Temple, Batu Bulan Temple, and central Ubud. Tourists looking for a Balinese cultural show with a difference will be blown away by the Kecak Garuda Wisnu.

The performance is a fusion of the classic Kecak and the Ogoh-Ogoh parade that takes place the night before Nyepi, the Balinese day of silence. It is not to be missed!