Fiji Sun: Hibiscus Festival Hailed a Success
1st September 2009
The Vodafone Hibiscus Festival 2009 was been hailed a success by its organisers.They claimed it was the most successful Festival ever.
Hibiscus Committee executive secretary Aqela Cakobau said the charity event, dubbed the Mother of all Festivals, collected more than $248 which was $10,000 more from the amount collected last year. “The overall festival has been a success and I thank the One above for providing good weather,” Ms Cakobau said.
“The weather enabled the programme to go on smoothly, enabled businessmen to carry out their businesses and people to come in numbers and enjoy the festival.”She said there were organisations which took advantage of the festival to carry out their businesses as well as their awareness.
“For instance, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) sent down their customer services team to the ground where people could register for their driving license,” Ms Cakobau said.
“Business went well for stall owners and we received a feedback that some recorded average sale. This could be attributed to the location of their stalls.”
Ms Cakobau said, the committee as well as the sponsors of all queen contestants will sit together next week to decide on which charitable organisation the fund will be distributed to.
“Application for charitable organisation who needs funding will be closed on September 4. It will only be given to recognised organisations,” she said.
“The sponsors and the committee will then come together to sort out applications.”
She said they are looking forward to next year where they hope to improve from where they left off this year.
“We hope to better. We will be identifying our areas of weaknesses and improve them so that we have another great festival next year,” Ms Cakobau said.
She said their main focus now was the upcoming Pacific Building Solutions-sponsored South Pacific Pageant which would be held in Fiji for the first time in November.
“This will be different from the Hibiscus Festival so extra effort will be needed to stage it,” Ms Cakobau said.
“We are thankful that PBS has stepped forward to sponsor this event which will bring more excitement to Fiji.
“It is an international event where all Pacific Islands will be represented and we are expecting a much bigger crowd from the representatives’ families and relatives who will come in from all over the world to show their support.”
While she refused to reveal the sponsorship amount pumped in by the PBS, it is understood that more than $50, 000 has been agreed for the deal.
This excludes the house which will be built by the company for a mobile phone texting competition.
“The winner will own the house and the money gained from the competition will be for the operational costs of the pageant,” Ms Cakobau said.
The PBS South Pacific Pageant will be staged in Suva on the first week of November.
Source: Fiji Sun 8/1/2009 |
