Members of the Council of Pacific Arts and Culture are impressed by the progress made by Guam in preparation to host the region and the world at the 12th Festival of Pacific Arts in May 2016.
They showed their support and appreciation when they met recently in Fiji at the 26th Meeting of the Council of Pacific Arts and Culture, for which the Secretariat of the Pacific Community is the secretariat.
Guam will play host to all the members of the Pacific from May 22 to June 4, 2016 under the theme of What we own, what we have, what we share: united voices of the Pacific.
Program coordinator for the Guam Council on the Arts and Humanities Agency Jacqueline Balbas, updated the members of the council on their preparations in a press release from the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) Thursday.
The FestPac Coordinating Committee is in place, with six working sub-committees dealing with programs, logistics, volunteers, marketing, finance and ceremonies.
Workshops have been held and the artistic disciplines that will feature at the festival include visual arts, literary arts, performing arts, traditional arts, and forums and seminars. Preparations will go into full gear in early 2015.
The festival is estimated to cost 13 million U.S. dollars, funded through government and the private sector. The Bank of Guam and United Airlines are key partners, and negotiations with telecommunications, fuel, hotel, automobile and shipping sponsors are ongoing at this stage.
A local public relations campaign for the festival was launched in May this year, with the Guam Visitors Bureau as the festival marketing lead. In 2014, the focus will be on-island public relations, and in 2015 off-island marketing will begin. 2016 will see increased event excitement.
Information about shipping needs, charter flight needs, and anticipated sizes of delegations will be obtained through responses to surveys sent to SPC member countries. Collaboration with the South Pacific Tourism Organization is being planned to promote the festival in the region and beyond.