It is hard to get even a small group of people – say a family or a close bunch of friends – to agree on things sometimes, let alone an entire city like Shillong.
So, the state government may be forgiven for trying to ignore the numerous complaints of the recent Cherry Blossom Festival because it must be obvious – you can’t please everyone.
Festivals, concerts and the like are big business. The state government has repeated several times that the Cherry Blossom Festival last year generated an economic boost of Rs 60 crore, which seems, on the face of it, well worth the government expense of Rs 5 crore. Whether those figures are actually independently verified and audited, we don’t know.
What was the main bugbear this year was the noise. And the traffic.
The first Cherry Blossom Festival was held in Shillong in 2021 but was plagued by traffic chaos and would-be concert goers who were turned away at the gate when the venue became overcrowded. Police even had to resort to teargas when a few individuals became violent.
After that the festival was moved to Bhoirymbong. There have been hiccups there too, not least when heavy rain forced one day of the festival to be cancelled in 2023. Last year, one person was killed in a collision with a vehicle in a VIP convoy on the way to the event. 2022’s event was cancelled altogether after the Mukroh Massacre.
The festival returned to Shillong this year as the Bhoirymbong ground is being utilised for a cricket facility and the government and the private company organisers must have hoped that lessons had been learned from the 2021 event. After all, Polo had handled mega football matches and concerts (think Bryan Adams last year) successfully since then.
But the entry of thousands of visitors from outside the city for the festival and thousands more locals making a beeline for the venue made a mockery of the government’s traffic management efforts.
However, in a city so obsessed with traffic that complaining about it is a favourite pastime, it was the noise the concert generated that really got to the public. It wasn’t just loud, the festival also went past midnight on both days and the music carried for several kilometres, while buildings close to the venue shook with the reverberations.
The most bizarre complaints revolved around “half naked” dancers, who seem to have excited and appalled people in equal measure. The populist opposition politician Ardent M Basaiawmoit jumped on the bandwagon, reportedly criticising the festival for devaluing local culture.
Yes, some people hated it but those who were there probably had a great time. You can’t please everyone. But whatever side you stand on, it seems clear that cramped and congested Shillong probably isn’t the place you should rock and roll all night.
