ISSUE
Friday, February 14, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 46
The government’s five-step plan to reconnect New Zealand to the world has brought no relief to the long-suffering Kiwi-Indian events industry, say organisers.
The events industry clearly does not share the sense of anticipation that most Kiwis expressed upon hearing the announcement.
“We feel let down,” says veteran singer and event host Sandhya Badakere. “As long as the red traffic light restrictions remain in force, we simply can’t think of hosting events of any scale that can be economically viable.”
Badakere has already had to postpone her Swar Sadhana Academy’s annual ghazal concert Rubaru twice. After an earlier postponement, it was scheduled to be held on February 12, but has now been put off until December. Their hugely popular signature event, Sunheri Yaadein, which has been hosted annually for the past many years has been announced for 7 May, but Badakere is uncertain if this can go ahead.
“I simply don’t know. There is absolutely no certainty about until when the red light restrictions are set to continue. Opening of borders is meaningless for event organisers if we have no clarity on hosting events,” she told Indian Weekender.
Popular singer-organiser Gopal Bhatia is more optimistic. His forthcoming events Magical Pancham and Latasha are scheduled to be held on 5 March and 30 July respectively.
“I’m hopeful that the government will change the traffic light setting to orange in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “It’s just a hunch and I’m an optimist.”
Magical Pancham is still set to go ahead in about three weeks’ time. Bhatia says he will wait a little more before announcing any change to the date. He already changed the date once from January 22 to March7. “In hindsight, I should have held it then – it was still orange light then.”
Bhatia shares many Kiwis’ bewilderment at the statistics predicted by modellers and epidemiologists. “They said there would be fifty thousand cases a day by Waitangi Day. We’re two days away and the count yesterday was something like 150. I have no idea how these predictions and decisions are made.”
Jayesh Bateriwala who successfully organised Candlelight Classics to a sub-100 audience in the red light setting in January has a few more events planned across 2022, one of them in March. He says the situation is fluid and unpredictable. “Now that the borders are opening, I’m seeing cancellation of bookings for our March play because people are now planning to go away to India, having been unable to travel for two years. In that sense, this announcement hasn’t worked in favour of us.”
His event outfit Kshitij Enterprises also organises for artistes from India to perform in NZ. “With restrictions like red light, even having the borders open is meaningless. Maybe in the final phase when everyone can come to NZ, the red light restriction will go. We can never tell. It is uncertain and confusing.”
Ram Iyer of CFI Events, which has been organising events big and small both in NZ and Australia said that when the borders open and the restrictions on gatherings go, there will be a scramble to host events. “Everyone has been waiting with bated breath for two years. With no certainty as to when it will be possible, it leaves no time for planning. Events need a lot of advance planning, a long lead time.”
Iyer said the event industry deserves to be treated with seriousness. “We’re not at all happy with the way things have gone,” he said.
Even if all restrictions are removed, event organisers are chary of a number of other factors: will audiences be confident enough to congregate in closed spaces given the scare of the past two years? How will the industry navigate the competing dates and the paucity of good venues in Auckland? Will sponsors still be confident of backing events?
The Kiwi-Indian events industry has many reasons to feel disappointed at the lack of support and consideration that it has faced in the past two years.