UNY held Festival UNY Njathil as part of 55th UNY anniversary celebration on Thursday, 2 May 2019. Kuswarsantyo, the committee chairman for the festival, said that njatil is substantially can be symbolized as the spirit to totally focus on working, researching, serving the community and other positive effort to develop UNY and Indonesia. Kuswarsantyo, known as Doctor Jathilan, explained that jathilan or kuda kepang or braided horse is a popular dance show in Java. He noted that the essence of jathilan is not merely about trance, but it is also about choregraphy, costume design and varied musical support. The theme of the story varies greatly, depending on the need for the event to be performed.

Sutrisna Wibawa, Rector of UNY, said that UNY will not change what has been in the community as a tradition of ancestral heritage that must be preserved, but UNY will provide other forms of jathilan with different interpretations.

Festival UNY Njathil successfully attracted 4.883 participant which is belong to 43 teams. The festival was successfully recorded in the MURI Record as the initiator and organizer of the new Jathilan dance competition with the most participants. MURI Executive Manager Sri Widayati said that the MURI record for the most recent jathilan creative dance has gone through several stages and studies. In general, the recording of MURI has several criteria. Besides the most, the other criteria are among the most unique and rare. This record is recorded at number 8,995. (Dedy)