By Laura Lee
The sponsorship of the Penang World Music Festival (PWMF) 2012 comes to the tune of more than RM1 million, Penang chief minister Lim Guan Eng told the media and crowd at the preview held at Straits Quay, a day ahead of the festival which begins today at the Botanic Gardens in the island state.
He also mentioned that Plenitude Bhd sponsored RM300,000 for the event. I noticed The Star has referred to this event as the Plenitude World Music Festival in its two reports today.
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Plenitude executive chairman Chua Elsie (second from right) presenting the mock cheque to Law |
Can a title sponsor do that? A check with Gracie Geikie, managing director of UCSI Communications Sdn Bhd, which has been appointed as the event management consultant for the PWMF, suggests otherwise.
“We can say that Plentitude presents the Penang World Music Festival as the branding of this event is Penang World Music Festival,” replied Gracie, who is the advisor for the event.
Citing the case of the recently ended Penang Malaysian Grand Prix 2012, one event organiser said it would be appropriate if the event is called Plenitude Penang World Music Festival.
To call it by the name used by our national English daily suggests to me the event has sold its soul just because a corporation pumped in a large amount of money.
Initially I thought it could be a mistake made by The Star reporter. When I was at the event site this evening, I spotted buntings at the VIP area which referred to the PWMF as the "Plenitude World Music Festival".
I cannot blame The Star reporter now for making such a mistake, can I when you have buntings like this?
Since the Penang state exco for tourism development and culture Danny Law was present at the VIP area where Plenitude was hosting a small dinner for its guests, I checked with him regarding this confusion over the event's name.
He put the blame on the printer. This is not the first time I have heard of printers being blamed for errors being made to promotional materials and souvenir programmes. I thought printers only print what is given to them and onus should be one the person providing the materials.
I cannot blame The Star reporter now for making such a mistake, can I when you have buntings like this?
Since the Penang state exco for tourism development and culture Danny Law was present at the VIP area where Plenitude was hosting a small dinner for its guests, I checked with him regarding this confusion over the event's name.
He put the blame on the printer. This is not the first time I have heard of printers being blamed for errors being made to promotional materials and souvenir programmes. I thought printers only print what is given to them and onus should be one the person providing the materials.
Unlike in the past, where the federal government of Malaysia was behind the promotion of this event, this time round the Penang state government has taken over its organising and sponsorship.
In his speech last night, Lim viewed the PWMF as its very own brand.
To Lim, who considers music to possess the power to soothe the heart of the savage beast, he expects the PWMF to inspire the state, which has earned a number of firsts in the field of economy, to greater heights.
For Penang to be Malaysia's music capital, many ingredients come into play. As highlighted by Lim, they include a fantastic venue, good facilities as well as local and international performers.
The first band to perform at the preview last night was Vietnam's Phong Nguyen Ensemble, which had the opportunity to take a picture together with Lim.
Except for the char keow taui, which Penang is famous for, the rest such as the fried spring rolls and apple strudel were more like light finger food and dessert.
A random check with other Malaysian media have us concurring that the char keow teow served at Aseana Cafe in Straits Quay did not match our expectations.
To make matters worse, returning from the event back to Hard Rock Hotel, where most of the media and bands are staying, the television programme Makan Unlimited was featuring char keow teow and highlighted all the best char keow teow, including the duck egg's version, found in Malaysia.
I was certainly longing to eat the two sisters’ char keow teow @ 185 MacAlister Road in Penang after that. I was first introduced to this stall’s char keow teow with prawns and crab meat in 1981 by my varsity mate, See Siew Hwa, a Penangnite herself.
See related article on PWMF in: http://micemalaysiabeyond.blogspot.com/2012/03/penang-world-music-festival-to-serve-as
