Labuan Bajo, June 6, 2025 — The Golo Koe Festival 2025 was officially announced with great fanfare during a launch event held in the courtyard of the West Manggarai Regent’s Office on the morning of Friday, May 9, 2025. West Manggarai Deputy Regent, Yulianus Weng, accompanied by Labuan Bajo Bishop Mgr. Maksimus Regus, Vicar General of the Diocese of Labuan Bajo, struck a gong to signal the start of this annual religious festival.

The year 2025 marks the fourth year of the Golo Koe Festival, counting from when the event was first held in 2022, at a time when Labuan Bajo was still part of the Diocese of Ruteng. Although the main events remain the same, the theme of the festival varies each year, tailored to the pastoral priorities of the Diocese of Ruteng at that time.

The Secretary General (Sekjen) of the Diocese of Labuan Bajo, RD Frans Nala, explained that the theme of the Golo Koe Festival 2025 aligns with the diocese’s fundamental pastoral direction, particularly regarding tourism development in the region. The Golo Koe Festival 2025 carries the theme, “The Diocese of Labuan Bajo: Weaving Together National Identity and Sustainable Tourism in a Synodal and Inclusive Manner.” The following is a further explanation of this theme. The Diocese of Labuan Bajo has recently been established as a local church characterized by social richness, ethnic and cultural diversity, and religious pluralism. With this diverse profile, the Diocese of Labuan Bajo aspires to be a welcoming home for the nation and a harmonious mosaic of brotherhood.

This is reflected in the Golo Koe Festival, which will mark its fourth year in 2025. For this year’s event, the Diocese of Labuan Bajo aims to reaffirm the festival’s religious and cultural character and its commitment to embracing social diversity and pluralism.

This festival can be one of the church’s important contributions to sustainable tourism development that encourages the participation and involvement of the local community and is rooted in local culture and spirituality.

The theme for the Golo Koe Festival 2025 is “Fostering National Unity and Sustainable Tourism that is Synodal and Inclusive.” This theme embodies the fundamental spirit of tourism development that fosters the growth of humanistic national values in a synodal and inclusive spirit. In other words, tourism must serve humanity and be grounded in religious and cultural values.

In this regard, the Diocese of Labuan Bajo seeks to prioritize the dimensions of synodality and inclusivity so that tourism does not exclude anyone, but rather invites everyone to participate and work together to realize a better, more just, peaceful, and prosperous life. This synodality and inclusivity are concretely reflected in the festival’s organizing committee, which includes representatives from the government, various religious groups, cultural communities, social and educational institutions, and others. Likewise, the participants and the festival’s program reflect this dimension of inclusivity.

The Diocese of Labuan Bajo believes that tourism, as a vehicle for encounters between religions, cultures, and travelers, can broaden and strengthen human brotherhood and ecological concern for the environment. Through the various dimensions of these encounters, tourism becomes a means of fostering the faithful’s growth in faith.

Within this concept of synodality and inclusivity, the church views tourism positively in relation to evangelism and sustainable development that is equitable, participatory, and has a broad impact on the well-being of local communities.

Labuan Bajo, May 31, 2025

Heribertus Ratu (081398461957), Public Communications Division, Golo Koe Festival 2025