Flame Tree Fest’s return to AMP looks rosy

Reports that the Commonwealth Council for Arts and Culture is working closely with officials of the American Memorial Park to bring back the next Flame Tree Festival to the park is no longer just a rumor.

“We have cleared all the issues and concerns as to hot to get back into the park, without having to pay the insurance policy and daily rate usage fee,” said CCAC executive director Cecilia T. Celes. “According to the superintendent herself [Sarah Creachbaum], those issues can be resolved and they will be by being waived.”

Celes said, however, that there are “very minimal” fees that can’t be waived, but are affordable to CCAC, the Flame Tree Festival Committee and the Department of Community and Cultural Affairs. Some of the “minimal fees” include the application fee and the deposit for waste and cleanup.

According to Celes, the recent meeting with the AMP superintendent was “very fruitful.”

“It was a very positive and good meeting. The feeling during the meeting was not to bring back old issues, or pinpoint who was or who didn’t. The approach was ‘How can we work in partnership to make it work,’” said the executive director.

“I, for a fact, was very pleased with the outcome. I am happy for our community, our festival and our local artisans as well as the vendors involved in the annual important event. Together, CCAC and the Park have an understanding and further communications can be provided at a later time,” said Celes.

For the past two Flame Tree Arts Festival, the event was held at the Civic Center in Susupe.

According to Celes, there have been “some issues in the past that we faced, such as federal regulations, insurance policies that we needed to provide, and the fee to host the site that we had to pay and with the very little budget that we operate on, we couldn’t have hosted it there.”

The CCAC saw that, although the Department of Public Lands allowed the Flame Tree Arts Festival to be held at Civic Center, there was limited parking space, therefore not drawing as much crowd as it would have if hosted at the American Memorial Park, where there is more ample parking.

“It is confirmed to state, though, that we are forging a better relationship as well as partnership [with the American Memorial Park],” Celes said.