DESPITE ECONOMIC HARDSHIPS Flame Tree festival attracts big corporate sponsors

Despite financial difficulties faced by the Commonwealth’s business community due to the slow rally of the local tourism industry, organizers of the island’s biggest annual arts festival managed to solicit generous donations from corporate sponsors.

Arts Council Coordinator Cindy Macaranas yesterday revealed that two major companies in the Northern Marianas have pledged chivalrous financial support for next month’s holding of the 19th Annual Flame Tree Arts Festival.

Ms. Macaranas and Arts Council Executive Director Rob Hunter were at the Marianas Pacific Distributor office in Gualo Rai yesterday morning to accept a $6,000 check from Marpac general manager Joseph V. Santos for the annual fair.

According to Mr. Hunter, the Arts Council also received $6,000 donation from Mobil Oil Marianas which is one of the Flame Tree Arts Festival’s most religious corporate sponsors.
The Marianas Visitors Authority is the biggest government sponsor for this year.

In an interview before a media presentation yesterday, Mr. Santos said Marpac’s participation in several activities of the Arts Council is one of the company’s many ways of reaching out to the island’s indigenous communities.

Mr. Santos added many of the events organized by the Arts Council are designed to uplift the indigenous population’s traditions, culture and customs and that Marpac wants to be a part of that noble service to the local community.

“We owe our livelihood to the local community.
Our participation in these community-based activities is just a way of giving back to the very people who make the island’s business community as strong as it is now,” he pointed out.

The business executive also pledged the company’s support in making next year’s Flame Tree Arts Festival, which marks the annual fair’s 20th anniversary, a large celebration.
“Money donated to activities like those sponsored by the Arts Council is a money well-spent. It always feel good for a company, whose success is spurred by the patronage of the community, to give back and reach out to the very reason of its success,” Mr. Santos said.

Aside from Marpac and Mobil Oil Marianas, Ms. Macaranas said this year’s arts festival is also receiving support from other private sector sponsors like GTE Pacifica and Duty Free Shoppers Galleria.

The Arts Council is holding this year’s Flame Tree Arts Festival in June, or at least two months later than the previous years, since that is the time when the flowers are in full bloom and when tourist arrivals are usually higher.

The 19th Annual Flame Tree Festival will be held from June 2 to 4, 2000 at the American Memorial Park.

Although concerns were previously raised that the holding of the festival in June may yield reduced participation from schools, festival organizers said delegations from all over Micronesia and the Marianas have already confirmed participation

This year’s arts festival will highlight the culture of every single ethnic group in the CNMI through production numbers that include those from Guam, the Marshal Islands, Republic of Palau, Yap, Pohnpei, China, Korea, Japan and the Philippines.

The Commonwealth’s Flame Tree Festival is the largest annual arts affair in Micronesia, established 19 years ago to promote the arts and culture of all the ethnic groups in the Northern Marianas.