A damning indictment of Cherry Blossom Festival

Editor,

The Shillong Cherry Blossom Festival, held on November 14-15, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and Polo Grounds, was billed as a triumphant showcase of Meghalaya’s natural splendor and cultural vibrancy — a government-backed extravaganza under the Meghalaya Tourism Department, drawing global headliners like The Script, Jason Derulo, Diplo, Tyga, AQUA and Nora Fatehi alongside regional acts and Japanese pop culture tributes.

With pink cherry blossoms blanketing the hills and promises of “music, culture, and creativity,” it could have been a beacon for sustainable tourism in Northeast India. Instead, it devolved into a grotesque spectacle of youthful debauchery — open drinking and loud revellers and a blatant disregard for the very tribal ethos it purported to celebrate. This wasn’t a festival; it was a cultural lynching, orchestrated by the ineptitude of the Meghalaya Tourism Department and enabled by a generation of entitled youths who mistook hedonism for heritage.

Let’s cut through the glossy Instagram reels and promotional fluff: the event was marred from the outset by warnings from the Ri Bhoi police, who resorted to sassy social media posts to curb the inevitable tide of drunken idiocy. One viral advisory mocked a hypothetical attendee boasting, “I am carrying 5 bottles of Tuborg in my car to drink inside the Cherry Blossom festival. If I am not drunk by the time The Script comes on stage, I’ll eat my hat.”

These were not mere jokes; they were desperate pleas to prevent a repeat of last year’s “Bloody Petals” tragedy, where the 2024 edition saw fatalities from drunken driving and chaotic traffic mismanagement — hallmarks of a festival that prioritises bass drops over basic safety. Yet, reports and eyewitness accounts flooded social media with videos of sloshed attendees chugging openly, bottles in hand, amid the blooms, turning sacred grounds into a makeshift frat party. The prohibited items lists explicitly banned outside alcohol, but enforcement? Laughable. The tourism department’s complicity in this lax oversight is not oversight—it’s endorsement, inviting a horde of inebriated outsiders to trample Meghalaya’s soil with their vices.

Social media erupted with clips of festival-goers “dressing up” in ways that screamed provocation rather than participation, with one attendee’s reel captioned unironically about “vibes over modesty.” This wasn’t empowerment; it was exhibitionism, a toxic import from urban underbellies that clashes violently with Meghalaya’s matrilineal tribal fabrics—where Khasi, Garo, and Jaintia women have long embodied dignity through intricate weaves and unyielding community bonds.

What message does this send to the “newer generation,” as the user aptly notes? That cultural festivals are mere backdrops for TikTok thirst traps? That exposing private parts in public is “fun,” not a desecration? Organisers, who greenlit entry to such displays, bear the stain: their dress code was a suggestion, not a safeguard, allowing aesthetics of excess to eclipse the event’s nominal nod to local traditions like folk dances and cosplay that could have honoured indigenous artistry.

This festival, as a flagship initiative of the Government of Meghalaya’s tourism arm, had a solemn duty: to elevate the state’s rich tribal tapestry — ancient jhum cultivation rituals, living root bridges as metaphors for harmony, and festivals like the Wangala or Shad Suk Mynsiem that weave spirituality into every step. Instead, it peddled a diluted, Westernised caricature, where Diplo’s beats drowned out the dongkhor’s rhythm, and Nora Fatehi’s sensuality overshadowed the subtle grace of a local tribal dance.

The harm is profound and insidious: it erodes the moral compass of Meghalaya’s youth, who witness elders in the tourism department—those very “nincompoops” the user lambasts — prioritising ticket sales (with passes fetching up to INR 5,000) over cultural custodianship. Political squabbles over noise pollution and dates only underscore the farce, with BJP voices decrying the din while ignoring the deeper rot of cultural dilution. A stage-storming incident by an Assam youth further exposed the chaos, security in tatters as one man’s folly disrupted the facade.

The Government of Meghalaya and its tourism mandarins must awaken from this self-inflicted slumber. Revoke the licences for such pandemonium; enforce ironclad codes on attire and alcohol that respect tribal sanctities. Redirect funds from celebrity imports to authentic showcases — perhaps a dedicated pavilion for oral histories or eco-crafts, not EDM anthems. Otherwise, this “blossom” will wither into infamy, a cautionary tale of how good intentions paved the road to cultural perdition. Youths of Meghalaya, heed this: your heritage is not a costume for weekend revelry. Reclaim it, or watch it bloom no more. The petals are falling — will you let them scatter in shame?

Yours etc.

A concerned citizen