Strategi Event Rare Bali Festival dalam Mempertahankan dan Promosi Bahasa Bali

The Rare Bali Festival (RBF), an annual cultural event initiated in 2014, serves as a crucial platform for maintaining and promoting the Balinese language. This study investigates the specific strategies employed by the 2024 RBF in Denpasar to simultaneously maintain the language among active speakers and promote it to a wider audience. This qualitative research utilizes descriptive analysis grounded primarily in Structural Functional theory, examining how the festival operates as an integrative system for cultural preservation. Data were collected in June 2024 through observation, interviews, and literature reviews involving cultural experts, 60 teachers, over 100 students, and disabled children. Based on observational and interview data, direct language maintenance is facilitated through educational and participatory approaches where participants actively use Balinese as their primary medium of interaction. The core mechanism involves embedding the language organically into traditional games, children's songs (sekar rare), and storytelling (mesatua), which demands precise diction and articulation in dialogues. Meanwhile, language promotion is executed by utilizing social media and local news publications to increase public visibility, supported by collaborative partnerships with government and local organizations. In conclusion, while these integrated strategies successfully create a supportive environment for practical language use during the event, claims of long-term effectiveness remain limited to the observed festival context, indicating that sustained maintenance requires continuous community application beyond the festival itself.