Thingyan revellers enjoy the water flowing down from 2Cool pandal.

THIS year’s water festival saw some pandal businesses make a profit – but others barely broke even, and many lost money, organisers say.

Good management and organisational skills are needed to run a pandal business, and it doesn’t hurt to have a famous model or singer on board. The Road Runner pandal on Inya Road made huge profits.

Using two 40-foot-long spaces, Road Runner cost around K25 million, much higher than the normal one-block pandals of 40 feet.

“This year, business turned out to be really good, with more tickets sold and numbers increasing right up until the last day,” said Ko Lynn Tun, one of the five organisers of the Road Runner pandal.

Normally, a pandal costs around K15 million. But adding extras attracts more ticket-buyers. On the last day of the festival, Road Runner attracted around 1000 customers, he said.

“This year I think most pandals face losses. And it’s getting harder to find sponsorship compared to past years,” said Ko Lynn Tun.

A combination of support from friends, creative facilities, attractive pamphlet design and advertising made the Road Runner pandal a popular spectacle for participants.

Marketing for the site began in March with a promotion for a reduced-price K35,000 for all five festival days and an offer of two free tickets for every 10 purchased.

Though the ticket price rose in the month of April to K40,000 with one free ticket for 10, and went up again on the first day of the festival of K50,000, all tickets were sold out.

“Last year, our pandal business wasn’t good at all – we didn’t have enough pamphlets, and the design was boring,” said Ko Lynn Tun, who focused more on marketing in public places this year.

Though it can be hard to get a place on well-known streets such as Inya Road, Road Runner pandal managed to get a permit. Other main costs included around K800,000 to build the 80-foot long pandal, transportation at around K600,000, and lighting for K2.2 million, and food for K4 million. DJ services were provided by a friend.

Income was from the tickets sold, plus K1 million worth of sponsorship from Max soft drinks.

“It was excellent. We got around 500 people on the first day, increasing to 700 on the second and up to 1000 by the last day, and we made a good profit,” said Ko Lynn Htun.

But some pandals barely break even, including Six Sigma pandal, organised by MBA students on Inya Road.

“The total cost was around K13 million,” said U Soe Min Htet, organiser of the Six Sigma pandal.

Six Sigma spent around K3.2 million to build the 40-foot long pandal, K1.5 million for water channels and gasoline, K5 million on audio, entertainment cost while refreshment costs totalled K3.5 million.

Six Sigma’s income included K7 million from sponsorship and K40,000 in ticket sales for the five-day period with K15,000 for the first four days and K20,000 for the last day.

“Around 300 people a day joined our pandal, and although we have not made a final calculation, I think we nearly met the break even point,” said U Myo Lwin, an MBA student who helped organise the pandal.

Some pandals also face losses of up to K15 million, mainly due to failure to get a permit on a popular street, or because of lack of water.

The key to success is knowing the detailed procedures involved in managing the business. One big draw is the presence of celebrities – Road Runner had dancer Han Zar Moe Win and model Wut Hmone Shwe Yi.