Last week, local musicians and music venue owners in Chiang Mai announced that they will boycott a music festival organized by the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) for its lack of participation from and support for local people. Meanwhile, a member of a local musicians’ network said the organization of the festival highlights what is wrong with budget allocation by a centralized government.

A band performing at a bar in Chiang Mai city (File photo)

The TAT announced that it will hold the HOP Chiangmai Art and Music Festival between 20 – 29 September with the goal of boosting tourism in Chiang Mai during the low season. In addition to light installations at several locations across the city, concerts will also take place at prime tourist landmarks and feature famous Bangkok-based artists.

The local news outlet Lanner reported that after the TAT announced the festival, local musicians and music venue owners announced that they will boycott the festival on the grounds that it does not support the local music scene because Chiang Mai artists are not paid enough to perform and make up only a small part of the festival.

Simona Meesaiyati, owner of Thapae East, a music venue and bar in Chiang Mai city, posted on her Facebook account that she will not participate in the TAT campaign after being contacted by a representative of the TAT Chiang Mai office. Thanaphol “Fender” Chumkhammool, a member of the Solitude Is Bliss band and a solo artist under the stage name View From the Bus Tour, said that he will boycott the festival along with Solitude Is Bliss manager Paul Swann.

Claims were also made that local bands are being paid only 4000 baht to perform in the festival, and that the concept of the festival is too similar to another festival called High HO Chiang Mai, which is organized by a network of local musicians and is held around the same time.

Intending to boost income for local musicians and SMEs during the low season, High HO Chiang Mai takes place between 15 September – 15 October. It features over 80 local bands performing at over 20 venues across Chiang Mai city. It has been alleged that the network previously pitched the project to the TAT but did not receive a response.

A member of a local musician and artist network noted that the main difference between the two festivals is that HOP Chiang Mai Art and Music Festival features mainly famous Bangkok-based artists to attract tourists. Meanwhile, local artists and music venues did not get to participate in its organization and only a small group of local bands are scheduled to perform.

He said that last Tuesday (10 September), after the boycott was announced, the TAT held a meeting between its representatives and local networks. During the meeting, they were told by a representative of the TAT Chiang Mai office that the TAT’s main objective is to promote tourism and that it is not responsible for supporting or developing local artists. The aim of the festival is solely to bring in the most tourists to boost the economy.

Government support remains out of reach for locals

The HOP Chiang Mai Art and Music Festival is part of a series of cultural festivals to take place in five provinces throughout September with the goal of boosting tourism. In addition to Chiang Mai, events will take place in Nakhon Si Thammarat, Khon Kaen, Chonburi, and Kanchanaburi.

Sermsak Pongpanit, Minister of Tourism and Sports, said on 6 August that the Cabinet has approved the Ministry’s request for part of the central budget, reserved for emergencies or immediate needs, to be allocated to several of its ‘quick win’ projects to boost tourism and improve the economy. This series of festivals is one of the projects being funded by this request.

On 4 September, the TAT announced that an organizer had won the bid to hold the festival in Chiang Mai with a budget of over 30 million baht.

The local musician network member said that central budget money has to be used quickly. Meanwhile, allowing only companies with at least 10 million baht in registered capital to bid for projects means that civil society will never be able to participate in a project. He said that it is problematic for the government to spend a huge amount of money to organize an event within a short period of time and without participation from the local networks, and that it shows how the government does not value citizens.

He also said that there are many overlaps in organizations and budget allocations, which makes it more difficult for the civil society to access government funding. Several government agencies are involved in the arts, from the Ministry of Culture and the Creative Economy Agency to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the TAT. He said that this makes it unclear how the budget is to be allocated and who a civil society group needs to contact to pitch projects or apply for funding.

He said that budget management legislation should be amended to allow more participation from civil society, because government projects are often planned by bureaucrats who lack understanding of the issues. If the government does not trust civil society, he said, a team could be hired to conduct field research, or a committee formed so civil society could offer their opinions. He hopes that local people will have more say in how budget is allocated and used in their provinces, but noted that solving this problem requires legislative action.

Is decentralization the solution?

Phetcharat Maichompoo, a People’s Party MP for Chiang Mai, pointed out that the performance indicators for government projects often focus on quantity and not quality. The indicators for a project aiming to boost the economy, she said, might only be the number of people attending an event and not improvements in the GDP for the province. She said, however, that this is an issue with every government project and how projects are often planned to match government policy.

Phetcharat said that while she does not quite think it is a waste of money to use such a large budget on the HOP Chiangmai Art and Music Festival, she thinks that not enough money is being spent on local artists, who she said are being paid a significantly lower rate than artists from Bangkok. It is also unclear, she said, if the money is being spent locally elsewhere, since not a lot of detail has been released about the project even with only days to go before the launch.

For Phetcharat, the cause of the problem is centralization. Government agencies often don’t ask local people what they want before planning a project, she said, which reflects how centralized the Thai government is. She is planning a parliamentary interpellation asking the Minister of Tourism and Sports and the Prime Minister whether the indicators for these projects included their local impact. She also said that she will be pushing for amendments to budget regulations, such requiring qualitative performance indicators, as well as for provincial governor elections and decentralization.