Starter Kit. Idea 90 of 500. Cluster 4
Annual arts festivals, district by district
The mechanism, from the book
An app that tells people what is happening tonight converts a day visit into a 2-night stay.
The first step
Ask five artists and craftspeople in one district to show and sell their work for one Saturday in a school or temple hall, each paying a small table fee. Put up posters in guesthouses and tell Sri Lankans abroad through community groups. Visitors, sales, and artists asking to come back next year are the proof.
- Who pays first
- Local artists who need a buying audience, and visitors and Sri Lankan families abroad looking for work they cannot buy elsewhere.
- What leaves today
- District artists sell through middlemen or not at all; a festival sells their work directly and draws visitors to stay.
Ask first
- Department of Cultural Affairs. Ask what support exists for district arts festivals.
- the Divisional Secretariat. Ask whom to approach for public space and local permissions.
Check before you spend
That the venue and dates are approved, that crowds can be handled safely, and that artists' fees and insurance are settled before tickets go on sale.
Find out these three numbers
- How many visitors would travel to the district for a festival?
- What does a festival cost to stage for one weekend?
- Which sponsors would pay to have their name on it?
A comparison from the book
Zermatt. Chapter Five
"It decided to become one of the best ski resorts in the world, and then it did the work"
Fame comes from doing the work year after year, which is what a festival needs.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.