Boycott Sangai Fest call : BOAT resembles a ghost town

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Nov 25: Empty seats and deserted stalls adorned the Bhagyachandra Open Air Theatre (BOAT) and Hapta Kangjeibung venue of the Manipur Sangai Festival on day-5 today.
While some had their shutters down, many stalls were seen opening, but without any buyers.
Many stall owners are worried that they will not be able to recover fees they had paid for opening stalls.
There is no rush at the Hapta Kangjeibung venue like in the past editions of the festival. There are hardly any visitors. The buyers are mostly the security personnel who are deployed here for security, said a stall owner.
Notably, the Manipur Sangai Festival, touted as one of the biggest festivals in the State, is celebrated annually for 10 days from November 21 to November 30.
The festival made a comeback this season after it was halted for two years due to the Manipur conflict, which has remained unresolved.
Significantly, the 12th edition of the festival this year is being organised despite the Government facing stiff opposition from internally displaced persons (IDPs) and civil society organisations.
IDPs who have been displaced by the May 2023 conflict had urged the President's Rule administration to cancel the festival until they are allowed to return and resettle in their original villages.
While the PR administration went ahead with its plan to organise the festival inviting firms and individuals to open stalls, the IDPs and the general people had then announced that they would boycott the festival.
On the opening day of the festival, police had cracked down on IDP protesters near the main venue, Hapta Kangjeibung.
While the administration had projected the festival to be successful, footfall at the venues remained low on the opening day and the following days.
Negligible footfall at the festival venues have since forced organisers to suspend some of the events.
Hardly 2 days after opening the festival, a "Children's Disneyland Show" installed and organised at Khuman Lampak Sports Complex was pulled down.
The Children's Disneyland Show was proposed to be an amusement park and one of the main attractions of the festival.
It had giant wheels, Columbus (swinging ship) and mini trains etc--all aimed at attracting children and people of all ages. After experiencing negligible footfall at the venue, all the structures were then pulled down and the show was wrapped up.
A couple of days later, today, the footfall at the Hapta Kangjeibung and other venues has remained consistently low.
The Hapta Kangjeibung main venue has some 130 stalls opened including ones belonging to several departments of the Government.
There are many empty and unoccupied stalls lined up at the venue.
"There were huge crowds and rush in the past editions of the festival. People were then fighting over to secure stalls. This year, many stalls are lying empty and  there is nobody to occupy them," said a stall owner.
Almost all the stalls are losing money. The ticket sales are down and there are hardly any visitors to buy our products, said the person.
A food stall owner said, most of his customers are officials of the Government departments who have their stalls opened at the venue and security forces' personnel.
"Private stall owners are worried that they will not be able to recover the money they spent on fees for opening stalls," said the stall owner.
A fee of Rs 15,000 was fixed for opening food stalls, and Rs 10,000 for commercial stalls.
The Manipur Sangai Festival will conclude on November 30.
If the footfall at the venues remains low throughout, the Government is expected to incur a huge financial loss.