In Mandalay, the Myanmar New Year water festival takes place mainly on the south and east sides of the city's central moat.

HAPPY Thingyan (water festival) days are coming again.

Some of us will be thinking of visiting monasteries for merit, while many will be content to look for merit at the bottom of a bottle of beer. Most of us, of course, will travel around town on top of jeeps and light trucks during Thingyan.

Some will want to dance on a Thingyan pandal – or even organise one to have a good time with their friends.

U Tin Maung Oo, manager of Shan Ma Music Entertainment in Mandalay says this might seem attractive but is a dauanting task.

Getting approval from the relevant city development committee and the cooperation and money of sponsors is imperative, he said.

“ MCDC placed the stages around the moat by a ballot system.,” said U Tin Maung Oo.

“I’ve been organising a Thingyan stage every year with the help of sponsors. Organising for a Thingyan Stage is not an easy thing – it’s much more tiring than organising a live music show,” he said.

He said those who want to organise a Thingyan stage need to consider many things – sponsorship, the wood and carpenters, DJs or music entertainment, lunch, snacks and drinks and transportation for the people. Organisation is very important for it to be a success, he said.

“Last year, an 80-foot wide stage cost about K2 million. That included K1.5 million for hiring DJ, the cost of the music equipment alone was about K1.2 million. This year a 100-foot wide stage will cost about K2.5 million he said.

He said it was important to work out with sponsors exactly how many people would be at your pandal, which can be complicated by the sponsor’s staff expecting to get in on the Thingyan action as well.

“If you don’t make agreement for number of guest, there could be problems between you and your sponsor,” he said.

U Tin Maung Oo said K3 million would be a good sponsorship target for pandal organisers to aim for but added this has been made harder in Mandalay by an MCDC ban on alcohol and cigarette advertising on pandals.

But MCDC do help out organisers by providing the fuel to power the water pumps. U Tin Mg Oo said four water pumps are usually enough for a stage and cost about K50,000 each to hire.

“They use on average between 20 and 25 gallons of diesel over the Thingyan festival. In Mandalay, water is sourced from the moat and there is enough to easily supply pandals for the duration of Thingyan,” he said.

The standard priced to charge for admission to the pandal is K20,000, including lunch and snacks, he said.

But he said both organisers and patrons had to be careful to avoid accidents. It is not unknown for pandals to collapse, particularly on the final day of the festival.

“On the last day of Thingyan, near the end of the festival, you can often feel the stage swaying beneath your feet, in time with the movement of the people on the pandal,” he said.

One solution was to spread the centre of the festival over a greater area and reduce crowding, he said.

“In Mandalay for example, Thingyan celebrations take place around the moat but only the two roads on the south and east are filled with crowds,” he said. “Officials should space the stages out more evenly around the moat, which provides the water for the pandals, and this will also spread the crowd out and make the festival safer for people.”