Let the arts calendar be optimised
If there is one aspect about the arts and entertainment sector that has experienced unexpected boom then it’s the number of events taking place in a year.
The surge in the number of events calendar year has even left fun-seekers spoilt for choice. This crammed diary has also come to haunt the event organisers themselves.
Time and again, we have witnessed conflicts in the timing of the events. At some point, a similar situation nearly degenerated into some undesirable cross fire between some event promoters. Not a pretty debacle for such a limited space.
Few years ago, a heated debate arose when dates for holding the Tumaini Festival, Hangout Festival and Sand Music Festival clashed. Last year a similar situation came up when an event by dancehall artist Jay Jay Cee coincided with the annual Blantyre Arts Festival.
A huge blame game, resulted. Eventually Jay Jay Cee had to shift his planned album launch to a later date. You can imagine the inconvenience he faced in terms of his budget and all.
Some quarters attributed such a turn of affairs to the absence of a harmonised events calendar. They said without such a guide, everyone can do as they please.
On the other hand, the Department of Arts and Culture says events guide is always there only that artists and show promoters pay little attention to it.
But the event organisers and artists in turn blame the department for not publicising the calendar so that it can facilitate for proper planning.
This year, it seems the Department of Arts and Culture has chosen a proactive stand and released a harmonised arts and culture calendar which will be valid until 2025.
Almost all the prominent annual music, art and cultural events are appearing on the calendar. It is a good effort to see how the curators have laboured to ensure that each event has enough space between it and the next one.
But this is not all. Plenty other new events that have been announced for this calendar year are not on this guide. This is because the Department of Arts and Culture, says it first considers the standards and consistency of an event before it is allocated a space on the annual calendar.
This does not mean that the events outside this guide will not take place. They will go ahead. All the department is asking from the promoters is to consult the calendar and the department for guidance so that there is no conflict with the outlined events.
Given this situation, you can see that having the calendar in place does not automatically translate to a win. There is still a need for well-coordinated efforts to ensure that the ultimate objective of the calendar is achieved.
If a degree of sanity can be achieved, it will be a win-win situation for both fun-seekers and show promoters. An individual cannot split themselves to be at two events at the same time. And with the prevailing economic wind, it will be folly to think every penny that people make out there will be directed towards their entertainment budget.
Therefore, proper timing of the events is a crucial factor on whether the events are successful or not. Loading events on people for the sake of it will not make any difference. But strategic execution of the same will surely make steady gains.
