The government of Goa has given a sensible “assurance” by assuring that the Sunburn EDM festival dates will not include December 31. However, in the absence of any official confirmation from the show organisers of the change of dates from the original 28 to 31, to Dec 27/28 to Dec 30, there is no confirmation that the massive EDM festival with one the highest footfalls will not have its headline act filled last day on
December 31. That is
also the day when the whole country parties
in North Goa.
Officially, the four-day festival will culminate on December 31 in the middle of Little Vagator, where tourists will be packed like sardines. The traffic and congestion are going to be a spine-chilling nightmare with one devastating fallout. Crushing the local.
It’s all about responsible travel
and tourism
For more than twenty years the responsible travel movement has made tourism all about local people, culture, and sustainability and connecting tourists to local ecosystems and culture.
That philosophy seems far removed from the race to have festivals only to make hundreds of thousands of dollars, shared between the economically and politically powerful, with the common man crushed under the weight of this juggernaut.
Each year for about a decade now, a similar pattern revolves around this EDM festival. Initially, permissions are refused on different grounds, stories circulate that permissions have been refused and then finally, hours before the opening act, everything is resolved and the
gates open.
It’s not whether Sunburn should be held. It’s about when, where and how. AND ABOUT RESPECT FOR LOCALS
A land and its cultures and ecosystems are built on an element beyond the obvious- earth, water and air. It is built on trust, both within the ecosystem and in the relationship between people and their environment. Goa had that relationship with its tourists, who paid utmost respect to Goa’s ecology, and environment. They respected that the beach belongs to the sea as a place of rest and not as a party hall or a place for adventure sports.
They infused Goa with music and parties but neither they nor the State did it
at the cost of finishing our hills slopes and forests.
An international EDM festival which draws its crowds can be held anytime beyond the last week of December
The tendency to hold Sunburn in the last week of December has long been questioned. But governments have always aligned with the EDM organisers and not with the people.
With 300000 people attending the festival, the entire stretch of Vagator Arpora, Anjuna, and Siolim becomes a fortress. Cars can hardly move and there’s tremendous pressure on hotel rooms, transport and basic comforts.
Vagator, Anjuna, etc, are also Goan villages, where Goan families are made prisoners in December. IS THIS FAIR?
In any case, when tourism turns to an onslaught in the last week, locals are locked inside their homes in the daytime due to traffic and are sleepless at night during the blaring music allegedly with Court orders and rules thrown to the winds. Therefore adding December 31 to the Sunburn calendar takes this extreme torture several notches higher.
Goans have their functions, parties in each other’s homes and the midnight mass of the last day of the year welcoming the New Year. Over the years many families have been leaving their villages and living with relatives in other places during that week, while some have simply stopped going out. IS THIS FAIR?
This begs the question. Can tourism only be about business entities from outside Goa making money and only some official pockets of people kept happy?
A simple yardstick needs to be applied. Do mega events which disturb the Goan way of life and comfort for a three to four-day period, serve Goa’s interests in any way or multiple ways? Do these help Goan businesses, do they boost local tourism, and do they give work to locals?
If the interests of Goans are not served, then is it fair to disrupt their lives to such an extent? Can’t a festival of this nature move to a less congested open space wide access roads and ample parking?
Solutions are available. The government has to show a willingness to move Sunburn out of this congested venue and move to an alternate one, which will allow a popular music festival to take place without putting pressure on locals and local ecosystems.
