Mandalay’s water festival celebrations are widely considered the country’s wildest.

THE road parallel to the moat around Mandalay palace – as anyone who has visited during water festival will know – is the centre of Thingyan celebrations in the former royal capital.

Pandals require plenty of water, so it’s only logical they congregate around the moat.

Permission to build a pandal is required from Mandalay City Development Committee (MCDC) and the place to build is decided by a lottery system. MCDC fees for the “premium” sites in the south and east are K500,000.

This year, MCDC received about 90 proposals to build pandals. The successful applicants began construction, as always, at noon on March 27.

The eastern and southern sides are the most desirable sites for organisers – in 2008 there were 37 pandals south of the moat, 28 in the east, five in the west and one in the north.

But this year, the 150th anniversary of the founding of Mandalay, there are expected to be an increased number of pandals spread more evenly around the moat.

Construction on most pandals in Mandalay got underway at noon on March 27.

The decision to build a pandal should not be taken lightly, organisers say, as construction costs alone can easily top K10 million.

Most pandals cost at least K100,000 per foot, according to Ko Zin Min Swe, from CAD construction.

“To build a pandal of about 100 feet, the cost will be about K10 million – that is just for the construction costs and without taking into consideration the entertainment costs. We have to use about 20 tonnes of timber for a pandal that size and the timber price is about K300,000 per tonne. A 100-foot pandal can hold about 200 people,” he said.

CAD built the T Home pandal last year and Ko Zin Min Swe said construction costs topped K400 million, or about US$400,000.

“That also included buying the water pumps and the demolition cost. On that pandal we used an iron frame for the lower levels, which made the pandal stronger but also reduced the cost.”

The T Home pandal is an example of a company pandal, which is built to promote the business and its products. The pandal is usually open only to company staff and invited guests.

The other type of pandals are privately organised and funded by ticket sales and sponsorship. Organisers sell tickets to punters who want to throw water during the festival. Ticket fees depend on the site of the pandal and the entertainment and usually range from K15,000 to K30,000 but can be up to K40,000. Most of the pandals in Mandalay are ticketed.

Ticket fees are expected to be similar to last year – maybe even slightly cheaper – as timber prices have remained stable and diesel is cheaper than 12 months ago.

One pandal organiser said sponsorship was crucial to making a profit at water festival.

“If you get generous sponsors, you can make a good profit – it’s also a fun to run the pandal,” he explained. “I used to build pandals and sold tickets in 2006 and 2007. In 2006, I made a profit of about K1.5 million when I built an 80-foot pandal, which cost about K7 million. At that time, I also hired the music band but the singers were not famous.”

“In 2007, I built a 100-foot pandal. It cost about K120 million, I hired one DJ and four singers and we made about K4.5 million profit that year.”

The competition for sponsorship means the location and design of the pandal are important, Ko Zin Min Swe said.

“If you build your pandal with an attractive design, more companies are interested to put their advertisements on it and you have more sponsors. Normally, the place to throw the water, the dance floor and the places to put the advertisements are the main,” he said.

But for Ko Naing Nanda, who build the pandals in 2004 to 2006, experience is also important to making a profit.

“I first organised a pandal for fun, not for the business, not for making profit – I just wanted to cover the costs really. But I lost a lot [of money] in the first year, I think because I didn’t hire the famous singers and the pandal design was average,” he said.

However, he is determined to learn from his mistakes for this year’s water festival.

“I will build the pandal with the more attractive design this year, I think that will draw a lot more people to the pandal.”