Low turnout for 19th Flame Tree Arts fest

The CNMI Arts Council will hold the 20th Annual Flame Tree Arts Festival back on its original date in the last weekend of April after this year’s celebration failed to generate as much following as it did in the past, festival organizers said.

Arts Council coordinator Cindy Macaranas said the three-day festival did not meet the number of people originally expected to troop to the American Memorial Park to take part in the Commonwealth’s celebration of island cultures and traditions.

The Arts Council anticipated to generate a crowd of at least 20,000 people for this year’s festival that started Friday and concluded last night.

While economic slowdown could be one reason which dampened the spending behavior of local residents and tourists, the low turnout for the arts festival was generally blamed on the movement of its date from April to June.

“It was more of an experiment because the Marianas Visitors Authority asked us if we can hold it two months later. After documenting the low turnout for this year, we will hold next year’s festival in April as we previously did,” Ms. Macaranas explained.

She pointed out that the festival’s failure to generate a crowd as big as it did in 1999 has prompted the Arts Council to re-institute the original April date.

Also, the 19th Flame Tree Arts Festival failed to meet the anticipated number of commercial booths at 100, falling short by 21 from last year’s 96 participants to only 75 this year.

Ms. Macaranas said that because of the low turnout of crowd at the American Memorial Park during the three-day festivities, earnings generated by commercial participants have likewise spiraled down.

She stemmed this down to the other activities local residents are normally busy with during this time of the year like graduations and confirmations, stressing that these occasions entail expenses that could have further weakened their spending power.

Aside from its failure to meet the anticipated number of guests, the 19th Flame Tree Arts Festival also failed to seek active participation from the schools in terms of artistic performances, as well as in the commercial aspect.

If it is any consolation though, festival organizers have managed to solicit generous donations from corporate sponsors like Mobil Oil Marianas, GTE Pacifica and DFS Galleria despite financial difficulties faced by the Commonwealth’s business community.

The Marianas Visitors Authority is the biggest government sponsor for this year.

The Arts Council has held 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.

This year’s arts festival highlighted 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.