.jpg?20241214')
From the looks and sounds of it, it would seem that Bahrain’s cultural scene has blossomed into a global platform and indeed, we are seeing plenty of wonderful world-class concerts, dance performances and arts festivals in the kingdom. From Andre Bocelli to Russell Peters, we have renowned performers bringing their magic to audiences here.
Keenly aware of the rocky road strewn with poorly organised big acts and the financial tense spots many event organisers paint themselves into, the government is rightly wary of allowing free rein to everybody to do as they please and access to the top show venues is tightly controlled.
However, this has led to a slowdown in growth of the culture and entertainment sector. Make no mistake – this sector is not just about soft focus and soft power. Increasingly, countries are understanding that with millennials dominating and shaping their economies, leisure and entertainment are big buck businesses. Words and phrases like GDP, job creation and economics are increasingly being used in the context of the business of entertainment.
One has to only look at neighbouring Saudi Arabia to see the stunning size of investments being made in this industry – the kingdom plans to spend over $63 billion by 2030 in building infrastructure and developing talent for the future of fun times and generate at least 100,000 jobs.
Bahrain, of course, is a much smaller market. It was, till the 2000s, well ahead of the curve when it came to supporting entertainment and cultural activities. I remember working with the Information Ministry in the 90s on Indian community projects – we were given access to the studios of Radio Bahrain for recording sound tracks, we were allowed to hire spacious government school halls – why, we even staged a musical in Arad Fort long before it became a venue for Spring of Culture events.
Later, when one group established its cultural credentials and took Bahraini artists to India on a performance tour, there was a reciprocal arrangement made so that the classical artistes coming to perform under that group’s banner were charged visitor visa fees instead of the much higher performing artist visa charges.
All that seems to have changed drastically. When we recently tried to get information on venues for a world-class performance which has seen full houses in Dubai, London and New York, venues in Bahrain which could showcase such an event unceremoniously shut doors even before we could present our case.
There seems to be no effort to involve the private sector in Bahrain’s entertainment sector which is run like a public sector fiefdom. True, we do get top-class acts but how long will the government continue to bankroll these shows? Even if they are houseful and profitable now, the long-term goal must be to nurture private players and build local event management enterprise and put in place building blocks for a local performance industry that will see Bahraini and Bahrain-based theatre groups, music bands and performers thrive and excel.
Top entertainment markets around the world are characterised by a thriving private sector, from large corporates to start-ups, freelancers and creative industry entrepreneurs. To enable that, governments must support growth with policy and infrastructure – and then get out of the way. Don’t be possessive about performance spaces and shut the doors to suggestions and private sector enthusiasm. Let us all dance together to the music of the box office.
meeraresponse@gmail.com
&uuid=(email))