Residents transform ‘drab’ Indonesian village with rainbow facelift

A small district in Indonesia has become known as the ‘rainbow village’

When residents of a slum district on the island of Java in Indonesia decided their surroundings had become gloomy and grey, they took matters into their own hands.

Locals spent a month painting 200 buildings along the hillside in vivid colours, earning it the name Kampung Pelangi or ‘rainbow village’. From rooftops to gutters, almost every inch has been covered in stripes and artwork. Reportedly spearheaded by local headteacher Slamet Widodo, residents applied to the local government for funding in a bid to rejuvenate the district: a low-income part of Semarang, a town located around 280 miles from the capital Jakarta.

Almost every inch has been covered in stripes and artwork

The spot has become a tourist attraction, and an unlikely hit on social media, particularly on photo-sharing platform Instagram, where hundreds have uploaded pictures of the buildings.

Designs include psychedelic hearts, human-sized angel wings, dinosaurs and polka dots.

Images: Henky Hendrawan/Instagram


 

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