The Goa Chief Minister created waves last week when he categorically stated that from next year, the Electronic Dance Music Festivals would not be permitted to be held between December 15 and January 15. There was also sentiments reportedly voiced in the committee clearing the events, that the state government ought to take the final call on venues and dates and not allow the same to be presented as a fait accompli just a few days before the festivals are due to start.
To those living in the North Goa coastal belt and witnessing the traffic chaos that follows from overloading the year end festivity weekend, with mega music festivals, it will come as good news. Tourism industry stakeholders who have for the past three years been suggesting that the two festivals be shifted to non-peak months, are happy that a categorical statement and file noting has been made. The more cynical will recall that somewhat similar file notings about an EDM festival was made in earlier years, but matters stayed the same, with permissions granted to all, despite the adverse remarks at the time.
There has obviously always been a case to shift the festival dates outside the busy last week of December. Christmas and New Year attract the non-resident Goan throng, in addition to tourists, second home owners, and domestic and foreign party goers. The crowds were already in place. What the mega festivals do is critically overload the system to cause a near breakdown in logistics and send regular visitors looking to escape.
Both EDMs claim to bring in two lakh and four lakh festival goers and even the tourism mandarins are echoing this argument, perhaps in justification for government support to one festival. One organiser claimed that before 2007, there “was nothing.” That is so off the mark. What the EDM organisers are doing is only cashing in on an existing peak party season in Goa, scaring off some market segments that flee to avoid the noise and chaos and in the process may well choke the season to death. Tourism stakeholders are right to say that if EDMs were so confident of their crowd pulling muscle, they would walk the talk and draw independent audiences, rather that piggy backing on an existing season.
A second organiser sees the peak season as a good time to have many more festivals, catering to a larger audience, after setting in additional infrastructure. Clearly, that represents another point of view. One that clashes with the interests of the local populace, who find themselves being displaced from their homes and space, both physically and metaphorically, to “create the additional infrastructure”, so that India and the world can Party at New Year!
Perhaps 2016 might be a good year for Goa to see if it has the sort of muscle to set the agenda for organisers keen on using the Goa brand, rather than be dictated to. The local tourism industry had repeatedly advanced the suggestion that tourism planners for Goa must incorporate a tourism calendar of events, slotting events for off peak months that would be independent magnets, creating business and synergies around the year, disbursing and extending business possibilities and bringing lull months alive.
Banking all events into the narrow ten day year end window adds little value to Goa. Tourism stakeholders even go so far as to say it is loss in terms of revenue. A season collapsed into a few days only creates fly-by-night temporary service providers, out to make a quick buck.
Additionally, local event organisers and festival producers have their own concerns. Keen to see Goa grow as a festival destination, they are worried about Goa’s growing reputation among festival organisers, as one of the most corrupt states to do business of this sort in. They want protocols for permissions to be clearly spelt out, to eliminate arbitrary last minute decision taking and scope for corruption. To them it is apparent that the Goa brand can draw many more music festival organisers to this state to create events. But the absence of clear, set guidelines and protocols, that makes dealing with Goa an expensive and slippery ordeal, outside the legal framework “scares off most organisers, while others, more accustomed and adroit in wheeling and dealing, thrive in such an environment.
Obviously, even staging venues in congested, residential and even environmentally unsound CRZ areas need a rethink. Some of the most successful music festivals in the US are staged in a desert, where they have been welcomed for their additions to the economy. Stand-alone mega festivals should be encouraged to create and grow their own locations. Committees have suggested alternate, more accessible venues and these should be explored and insisted on. Yet, year in and year out, the festival organisers get to make these decisions, and the reasons are a no brainer.
If protocols are drafted, taking all stakeholders into consideration, the angst and heartburn that accompany each festival, every year, can be eliminated. EDM festivals are a huge business, with crores riding on them, in advertising, ticket sales, branding, production, music careers and other aspects. The artists are booked a year or more in advance, tickets are sold months earlier, ditto with other logistics of advertising, marketing, sales etc. So why are government permissions the last to be sought and given?
As the state become a staging arena for India’s party scene, and its favourite domestic playground, it is becoming clear that the checks and balances and permissions need to be better grounded in law and rule, that the state needs its own management plan for this, rather than be reactive to plans made by others.
