More festival glitches

 By LYNETTE KIL

THE organising committee of the Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture has assured the people in Port Moresby that things will be better organised from today.

Yesterday, people flocking to six of the seven designated venues were disappointed because they were closed. 

The only venue open was at the festival village. 

The venues closed were Jack Pidik Park, Ela Beach, Gerehu Sports Oval, Kilakila, Konedobu and Laloki.

Festival organising committee chairman Dr Jacob Simiet said they had to cancel the six venues for various reasons.

“Certain venues have been cancelled as there are technical issues and outstanding matters regarding them. 

“Therefore, we only use the festival village for today (yesterday),” he said.

“By tomorrow (today), all venues will be ready to have the Melanesian Arts and Culture Festival into full swing as in the programme.”

He said three venues would only be used at night for dance performances. 

The festival village will stage arts and culture exhibitions.

Meanwhile, National Capital District police and city rangers are working overtime to monitor the crowd to keep everything under control.

Also yesterday, some exhibitions were still not ready. 

They included the sculpture exhibition (Living with diversity) featuring all countries at the Creative Arts Gallery at the University of Papua New Guinea, comedy and skits by PNG and Indonesia at the Gerehu Sports Oval and a painting exhibition (Identity in diversity) featuring PNG only at Paradise Cinema.

Fiji opened proceedings yesterday at the festival village with traditional dances.

People representing the provinces of PNG were dressed up in beautiful colours as they swayed to the beat of the kundu drum.

Each province has something to display including carvings, paintings, bilums and baskets.