By Avner Pariat
The recently held Cherry Blossom Festival seemed to be a resounding success (finally). This is good news after a few rocky years. Last year a sudden and powerful torrent played havoc with the festival and the Ne-Yo show was also mired by controversy owing to some overreaching moral crusaders but it still went according to plan. Though again it seemed to under-perform as per projections which were hoped for by the Department of Tourism. This is all a matter of conjecture of course as the data has never been shared. Certain assumptions were also made by an association of Shillong hoteliers according to room occupancy but nothing concrete regarding the numbers from the festival itself were made known after the event had concluded. However, this year – even the most cynical of us have to admit that it was a big success based solely on the optics. Whereas last year, the ground seemed to be only partially filled up, this year every nook and corner seemed to have revellers dancing away to the music of Senegal’s biggest hip-hop export – Akon, the purveyor of “convict music” as he himself calls it. This is great news because it means that this festival can indeed pull in the crowds. This also means that this property can finally stand on its own now and wean itself from the support of the Tourism Department. That should be the end goal here. The government has always been talking about developing a Private Sector so now this is the time to act. Pulling out support from Cherry Blossom can allow it to grow and be a good exemplar for others to follow. Now, if the Tourism Department pulls out its support, it will have extra money to put into other properties as well. This should be encouraged so that other lesser-known events are galvanised and supported.
To truly honour the democratic ideals of inclusion and representation, there is a need to rethink the current approach to festival organization. One approach might be to spread funding around and place greater control and decision-making power in smaller groups which was the norm previously. Training them to be more professional with a strong emphasis on financial considerations can ultimately help our beleaguered exchequer. On that note, I asked a Tourism official once about how the state would gain monetarily from festivals and he opined that it would mean bigger GST collections. I was sceptical about this approach as we would have a difficult time segregating Tourism income smoothly from this big data set. A lot of assumptions would have to be made which might not have a bearing in reality. However, he also admitted that a more direct way to gain revenue would have to be thought of. This is the need of the hour, both for the government to benefit from and to silence its vociferous critics, who opine that those festivals are a waste of money. It is clear most of the citizens will never benefit directly from a Cherry Blossom but at least indirectly the revenues it generates must be enjoyed by them. For me, this is the more serious issue that the government must address.
If we turn to other lesser regarded festivals (in my opinion) like the Shillong Literary Festival and the Tri Hills Ensemble (ably organised by the Department of Arts & Culture) which also happened in November 2024, we can see how an intimate and sustained involvement with many stakeholders can also lead to great success. In both events, the government departments themselves were directly involved in the programming and proceedings. I enjoyed them both quite a lot. Yes, these types of festivals will never know the types of crowds seen by a Bryan Adams or a Ne-Yo concert. That will never happen in a thousand years BUT such festivals are actually MORE IMPORTANT. Not only do they cost less for the government to organise which is a very important consideration, but they actually build a sense of solidarity and community. They will never ever make more money than Cherry Blossom but both had numerous organisers and participants who all benefited monetarily. Some people got to build the pandals, some got to print flexes, some got to do the sound arrangement and organise panel discussions, etc with many shortcomings and uncertainties. They were not perfect, not up to “global standards” nor run by professional companies but they SPREAD MONEY AROUND. For me, that is very important. This creates goodwill towards the Tourism Department and the government, which is exponentially better than anything one huge festival can do. Again, these types of events are not commercially sexy or attractive for most companies which is why I say let them have Cherry Blossom. Government should pull out now and let it flourish under their patronage. These smaller, more unique festivals need more help now.