Winter has already arrived, at least in Shillong, and this is the time for festivals. The most coveted winter festival in Shillong and the entire state of Meghalaya is the Cherry Blossom Festival, which marked its ninth chapter this year. This was followed by the Literary festival, which saw some of the big names in the world of literature, including Booker Prize winner Banu Mushtaq, in conversation with local intellectuals. The next in line is the Me’gong festival in Tura.
It’s quite a busy time for citizens and a great way to begin the Christmas season.
Over the last three years, the Cherry Blossom Festival has gained much popularity, especially for the international lineup of musicians.
According to the state government, it is also a great way to encourage tourism and increase revenue. Well, from single-line government statements, it is definitely apparent that the festival has filled up the government exchequer. For instance, according to Chief Minister Conrad Sangma’s recent statement, the state invested about Rs 20 crore in the festival last year and got returns of over Rs 130 crore in direct and indirect revenues.
In June this year, former tourism minister Paul Lyngdoh pointed out that the government’s investment of over Rs 23 crore in various festivals in 2024 generated six-fold returns, which is over Rs 130 crore. The revenue from ticket sales itself was over Rs 29 crore.
However, these are just flashes of numbers projected by government officials. A comprehensive and audited financial disclosure is not available in the public domain, and this has made it difficult to quantify how much direct revenue actually reaches the state treasury.
The only clear and official figure available in the public domain is from the state Assembly, where former Tourism Minister Paul Lyngdoh reported Rs 1.44 crore in hotel tax revenue for November 2023 — the month that included the Cherry Blossom Festival. Beyond this, all other revenue numbers presented publicly have been generalised economic impact estimates.
The figures often cited outside of the Assembly to justify investing in the festival did not have a detailed breakdown of direct ticketing revenue, vendor and sponsorship earnings, public subsidies, rentals and contracting costs, and share accruing to private and state partners.
In short, the state has not released a consolidated year-wise revenue and expenditure statement for the festival, making it impossible for taxpayers to verify whether the festival is operating at a profit, breakeven or loss.
According to media reports, and again, based on single-line statements, the footfall of tourists definitely increased during the festival period. But there is no dataset to track unique visitor numbers, hotel occupancy attributable specifically to the festival, festival-linked tourism revenue and year-on-year percentage growth. No such information was tabled in the House during the Budget session. Neither the opposition nor the local media demanded this information from the government and took the statements on face value.
The same goes for other festivals, such as the literary festival. Again, there is no data in the public domain about the financial particulars.
The festivals are a great way to uplift the profile of a place, but in the case of Meghalaya, there have been troubling incidents too, which have marred the image. There were multiple road accidents, even fatal accidents, involving festival-bound visitors or VIP escorts. There were crowd management failures, including scuffles, mismanagement and entry blockages. There were concert disruptions, including on-stage trespass incidents, and there were civic complaints on waste, noise and traffic, leading to formal pollution complaints to authorities.
These raise questions about the structural weaknesses in planning, public safety enforcement and urban capacity.
Meghalaya appears to be the only state spending money from its exchequer for festivals other than being a facilitator and entrusting the task to the corporates and the private players.
While festivals have immense potential, there is a need for accountability. The government needs to publish annual audited balance sheets for the Cherry Blossom Festival, including revenue, expenditure and profit/loss. It has to publicly release structured tourism data for the festival week—including visitor counts, hotel occupancy, tax inflows and vendor earnings. And it must conduct post-event safety audits and publish compliance reports.
Until then, the festival’s success rests heavily on claims rather than verified performance, leaving the public with celebrations but not clarity.
