Saking serunya konser band kampus, kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar.

The campus band concert was so exciting that we didn’t even feel hungry.

Breakdown of Saking serunya konser band kampus, kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar.

• tidak: not
• kami: we
• lapar: hungry
• merasa: to feel
• nya: his/her/its
• kampus: the campus
• konser: the concert
• seru: exciting
• band: the band
• saking ... sampai-sampai: so ... that

Questions & Answers about Saking serunya konser band kampus, kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar.

What does saking serunya mean exactly, and how is it different from just saying sangat seru?

Saking serunya is a structure used to express “to such an extent that…” / “so (adjective) that…”.

Pattern:

• saking + adj(-nya) + clause showing result

In this sentence:

• saking serunya konser band kampus
  ≈ “the campus band concert was so fun that…”

Compared with:

• konser band kampus itu sangat seru = “the campus band concert was very fun.” (just a strong description, no automatic ‘result’)
• saking serunya konser band kampus, kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar
  = “the concert was so fun that we didn’t even feel hungry.”

So:

• sangat seru = “very fun” (degree only)
• saking serunya …, (result) = “so fun that …” (degree + consequence)

Why is it serunya and not just seru after saking?

After saking, you will very often see the adjective with -nya attached:

• saking + adj + -nya (e.g. saking panasnya, saking lucunya, saking beratnya)

Here -nya does not mean “his/her/its” in a literal possessive sense. It’s functioning more like a marker that turns the adjective into “how (adjective) it is”.

So:

• seru = fun
• serunya here ≈ “how fun it was”

You could think of:

• saking serunya konser band kampus ≈ “because of how fun the campus band concert was…”

Using just saking seru konser band kampus would sound incomplete or unnatural; native speakers expect -nya in this pattern.

What does sampai-sampai add? Could I just say sampai once?

Sampai-sampai is used for emphasis. It intensifies the idea that the result is surprising or extreme.

• sampai by itself can mean “until / to the point that”
• sampai-sampai ≈ “to the point that / so (extreme) that”, often with a nuance like “we even (ended up) …”

In the sentence:

• kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar
  ≈ “we (even) didn’t feel hungry at all” / “we ended up not feeling hungry (which is kind of surprising).”

If you say:

• kami sampai tidak merasa lapar
  This is still correct, just less dramatic, more neutral.

So you can use a single sampai, but sampai-sampai makes it sound more expressive, like you’re emphasizing how absorbed you were.

Is konser band kampus one unit? How should I understand the word order here?

Yes, konser band kampus is a noun phrase, built like this:

• konser = concert (head noun)
• band = band (what kind of concert? A band concert.)
• kampus = campus (which band? The campus band.)

So the whole phrase:

• konser band kampus ≈ “the campus band’s concert” / “the campus band concert”.

Indonesian often stacks nouns like this head → modifiers, without prepositions:

• konser jazz malam = “jazz night concert”
• pertandingan sepak bola sekolah = “school soccer match”

If you wanted to be a bit more explicit, you could also say:

• konser band kampus kami = the concert of our campus band
• konser band di kampus = a band concert on campus (location-focused, slightly different nuance)

Why is kami used instead of kita?

Both mean “we / us”, but:

• kami = we (excluding the person being spoken to)
• kita = we (including the person being spoken to)

In this sentence:

• kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar
  implies “we (some group that does not necessarily include you, the listener) didn’t feel hungry.”

If the speaker wants to explicitly include the listener in that group (for example, talking to a friend who was also at the concert), they could say:

• Saking serunya konser band kampus, kita sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar.

So kami vs kita depends on whether the listener is part of “we” or not.

Why is it tidak merasa lapar and not just tidak lapar?

Both are grammatically correct, but the nuance is slightly different:

• tidak lapar = “not hungry” (a simple state)
• tidak merasa lapar = “not feel hungry” (focus on the perception / sensation)

In this context:

• kami tidak lapar could sound like “we were not hungry” as a fact.
• kami tidak merasa lapar emphasizes that they didn’t notice or feel hunger, likely because they were so absorbed in the concert.

You could also say:

• kami sampai tidak lapar (more neutral)
• kami sampai tidak merasa lapar sama sekali = “we didn’t feel hungry at all” (even stronger)

So merasa adds the idea of “feeling / sensing” the hunger.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? In what situations would it sound natural?

The sentence is informal–neutral:

• Vocabulary: everyday, casual (e.g. seru, sampai-sampai).
• Structure: perfectly fine for spoken Indonesian, storytelling, social media, blogs, informal writing.

You would naturally use this:

• in conversation with friends,
• in a casual written story,
• in a diary, a blog post, or a personal essay.

In a very formal context (like official reports), people might rephrase it with more neutral connectors, e.g.:

• Karena konser band kampus sangat meriah, kami sampai tidak merasa lapar.
  (Still not extremely formal, but more neutral.)

Can saking be used with other adjectives in the same way?

Yes. Saking is a general pattern:

• saking + adj(-nya) + (clause showing result)

Examples:

• Saking panasnya cuaca, kami malas keluar rumah.
  “It was so hot that we didn’t feel like going out.”
• Saking capeknya dia, dia langsung tertidur di sofa.
  “He/She was so tired that he/she fell asleep immediately on the sofa.”
• Saking mahalnya harga tiket, banyak orang tidak jadi menonton.
  “The ticket price was so expensive that many people decided not to watch.”

Same structure as in the concert sentence:

• Saking serunya konser band kampus, kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar.

Could the sentence start directly with Karena instead of Saking? Would the meaning change?

You can rephrase with karena, but it slightly changes the flavor:

• Original:
  Saking serunya konser band kampus, kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar.
  = “The campus band concert was so fun that we didn’t even feel hungry.”

• With karena:
  Karena konser band kampus sangat seru, kami sampai tidak merasa lapar.
  = “Because the campus band concert was very fun, we didn’t feel hungry.”

Both link cause and result, but:

• saking …, (result) emphasizes degree (“so X that Y happened”).
• karena …, (result) emphasizes reason (“because X, Y happened”), more neutral.

So yes, it’s possible, but saking keeps the “to such an extent that…” nuance.

Is it possible to drop saking and just say Serunya konser band kampus, kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar?

You might hear something like that in very colloquial storytelling, but:

• Serunya konser band kampus, kami sampai-sampai tidak merasa lapar.

sounds more like a stylistic/chunky spoken line:
“(It was) so fun, the campus band concert, we didn’t even feel hungry.”

Grammatically:

• With saking, the structure is clear and standard: saking + adj(-nya) → result.
• Without saking, serunya is more like a topical comment at the start; it’s looser and more conversational.

For learners, it’s better to keep the full pattern:

• Saking serunya …, (result)

and treat Serunya konser band kampus, … as a more advanced, colloquial variation.