3rd Mountain Festival 2016

Review Report

Submitted to:

Nepal Mountaineering Association

Kathmandu, Nepal

Submitted by:

Kushal Gurung

Festival Director
Introduction

Mountains cover approximately 27 percent of the Earths total land surface and
are home to more than 12 percent of the world's population, yet the
sustainability of mountains and mountain communities is rarely given priority in
most national policies and frameworks. To raise awareness on this issue the
United Nations designated December 11th as International Mountain Day, which
was first observed in 2003. Since then, the international community has
organized many events globally that have focused on issues specific to
mountains and mountain people. Building upon this worldwide promotion, an
annual mountain festival is likewise being proposed in Nepal.

Nepal is a landlocked country containing eight of the world's highest peaks within
the vast Himalayan range that defines the countrys Northern border. The
importance of mountains and mountain sustainability is a critical socio-economic
issue for the country. Mountains are a great source for natural resources but also
extremely vulnerable to current global challenges. Climate change,
indiscriminate deforestation, land degradation and natural disasters adversely
impact the life of mountain populations. The Annual Mountain Festival proposes
to be a venue to address these issues and create space to develop resources for
sound environmental and economically viable opportunities, ultimately
improving the living standard of mountain communities.

Festivals make up an integral part of the many cultures in Nepal. Adopting this
familiar mode of festivals as a medium to engage locals and other stakeholders,
the Annual Mountain Festival has aimed to create a space to foster awareness
and broaden perspectives of mountain people and mountain sustainability in a
fun but informative way. The city of Pokhara already has a robust festival culture.
With an abundance of eateries, lakeside and majestic views of the mountains,
the locals and visitors alike congregate often to celebrate many events.
Strategically and centrally located in the Western Development Region, Pokhara
is a popular destination for international and local visitors. With three out of
Nepals ten highest mountains located 30 miles outside of the city and boasting
a beautiful International Mountain Musuem (IIM), the selection of Pokhara is a
natural choice for the proposed Annual Mountain Festival. Touted as the 'second
city' of Nepal, Pokhara also offers a wide network of media outlets that will
further enable organizers to widely promote the event.
Objectives:

By organizing a festival around the observation of International Mountain Day,

the main objective of the event was to help to enhance the livelihood of
mountain community, climate change and adaptations, mountain farming and its
importance for sustainable development and the different sources of income
mountain environments provide such as tourism, high value mountain products
and handicrafts.

The specific objectives were as following:

Help to enhance the livelihood of the mountain community and their

environment.

Raise public awareness about mountain environment, biodiversity and

promote stewardship of mountain resources through alternative and
sustainable development of mountain environments and mountain
communities.

Promote and provide a forum for showcasing and discussing existing

indigenous knowledge of and adaptation to climate change as well as
newly innovated ideas for adaptation.

Provide a forum for discussion of the past, present and potential future
socio-economic impact of mountain tourism, mountaineering and
production of mountain products.

Build strategic partnerships and create space for resource and information
sharing between the governmental organizations, research institutes,
private companies, I/NGOs, local organizations, representatives of
mountain communities and other civil society groups with an interest in
mountain communities and sustainable development

Festival Planning & Organization:

The Mountain Festivals motive was not to generate maximum profit, but instead
to become a Mecca for knowledge, technology and innovation. After successful
completion of 1st Mountain Festival 2014 and not able to organize 2 nd Mountain
Festival on 2015 due to blockade, we had major challenges like -

1. What kind of new or additional activities to exhibit to attract more target

visitors?

2. How to pull the target visitors to the Festival Venue as International

Mountain Museum is located in the off location in the main city of Pokhara?

3. How to get everything done in a very limited budget and time?

4. Collision of National Industrial Festival organized by Pokhara Chamber of

Commerce was also one of major challenges faced during this festival.

Nepal Mountaineering Association re-appointed Mr Kushal Gurung as the Festival

Director for successful completion of the project. Due to limited time and
resources, a strategy was devised to find out potential partners for organizing
various mountain events, map out potential organizations that could showcase
their mountain related productions at the exhibition stalls, and to find further
sources of funding. As experience gained from 1 st Mountain Festival 2014 for
betterment this festival was shortened to 2 days from 3days and some of the
previous outdoor activities like Cycle Competition and 5 Km street race were
cancelled and following activities were conducted:

1. 1st National Bouldering Competition (Wall Climbing) organized by

2. Chhelo (Traditional stone throwing) competition organized by Kalabang

Gharedi.

3. Traditional Archery.

4. Gorahi Cement Udhyog P. Ltd. (Sagarmatha Cement) agreed to partner as

main event partner

5. ICIMOD agreed to contribute Rs one lakh (Rs 100,000/-) in cash and also to
participate in the exhibition by putting their stall showcasing their
knowledge

6. Multi Stakeholder Forestry Programme (MSFP)

 7. Prepared a list of potential exhibition stall participants and started
contacting them. Tiered-based pricing was set up for the stall. Rate for a
12*12ft stall for two days was priced at Rs 5,000 for big organizations and
commercial vendors; Rs 2,000 or free for small organization depending
upon the nature of stall.

8. It was decided to provide travel and logistics costs to those participants

whose products/displays are not available in Pokhara but meets our
objective and hence deemed not to be missed. Karkhana 1- who would
demonstrate their Yantra art-robotic combination, WindPower Nepal Pvt
Ltd- who would demonstrate their Wind-solar hybrid system and Bajra
Crodhical- who would demonstrate their improved metallic cooking
stove, were identified as those participants.

9. First formal meet was held in X November 2016 at the International

Mountain Museum premise.NMA advisor Dr Ganesh Gurung and other
guests were presented at the meet. Mr. Kushal Gurung formally announced
in public that NMA is going to organize the Mountain Festival at
International Mountain Musuem, Pokhara, from Dec 11 th -12th, 2016. He
presented about what activities are going to be carried, time period of
festival, number of target stall and asked for the suggestion for the
improvement and betterment of the festival.

1. Himalayan Host Countries' Meet

2. Himalayan Tourism Conference

Organising Committee

NMA requested the Secretary of Ministry of Culture, Tourism & Civil Aviation- Mr.
Suresh Man Shrestha to chair the Main Organising Committee, which was
wholeheartedly accepted by the Honorable Secretary. Under the chairmanship of
Mr Shrestha, first meeting of organizing committee (list of members) was held in
nov X at the International Mountain Museums conference hall. During the

1
meeting, list of activities to be conducted during the Festival were identified and
sub-committees were created for these activities (List of sub-committees), with a
coordinator assigned for each sub-committee.

The initial meeting concluded with an agreement to meet again after two weeks
time for the final preparation meeting. Each sub-committee was asked to work
immediately to successfully plan their activities within cost-effective budget.
Sub-committees were formed on the basis of all the activities to be performed till
the completion of the festival. Most of these sub-committees were based upon
operations needed for the preparations of the festival, while few were formed to
support, organize and follow-up different activities that would be the part of the
festival themselves. Few of the very important sub-committees were press media
coordination, Marketing/ Online marketing, Volunteer Mobilization, etc. All the
sub-committee coordinators were chosen as per expertise and need of the
moment. The coordinators were handed with very specific job responsibilities
that needed to be performed in coordination with the steering committee and
the execution party in order to fulfill each desired output.

Final organizing committee meeting was held on 5 th December 2014 at the

International Mountain Museum. Sub-committee coordinators briefed their
progress update to the organizing committee.

Visitor attraction strategy

Main target visitors of the Festival were following, ranked up on priority basis-

1. Youths from and nearby Pokhara, mainly students,

2. Communities located nearby the Musuem catchment communities,

3. Like-minded institutions such as colleges, NGOs, media houses, etc, peer

groups, and

4. Tourists visiting Pokhara

Marketing Strategy

1. Entry fees were free to the visitors.

2. Flex Banners, Posters were printed and placed in strategic positions.

 3. Promotion through Social Media- Facebook page of Mountain Festival.

4. Audio Jingles were miked throughout Pokhara.

Exhibition stalls and activities

Stalls Vendor was fixed a few days ago. The tents were setup till the 10 th evening.
Electrical and sound systems were set up early on the 11th of December 2016.
Stalls were allocated to participant depending on their need and products they
were exhibiting. Those using projectors were given the east facing stalls, while
others were considered for south facing stalls. Though, initial target was to get
up to 35 exhibition stalls, due to overwhelming demand we had to increase the
number to 40 (Annex II). These exhibition stalls were open for all two days.

Besides the stalls, following activities were conducted as part of the Mountain
Festival:

1. 1st National Bouldering Competition

2. Chhelo (Traditional stone throwing) competition

3. Traditional Archery

4. Dohari

5. Panche Baja swagat

6. Taya macha naach - Newari Cultural Dance

Festival Day (Annex III)

Day 1

First day of the festival started early in the morning with stall preparations still
going on. By 9 am visitors had started to arrive at the venue in International
Mountain Museum. Honorable Environment Minister Mr. Joshi and., who was the
chief guest of the Inaugural session, arrived around 10.30 am. He was welcomed
by Panche Baja and Taya macha naach and greeted by NMA executive committee
members and other dignitaries. They were then escorted inside the museum,
where Mr Bal Prasad Rai gave him a brief guided tour. After that, they were
guided to the main program venue, where he observed the stalls before walking
to the stage. Once at the Stage, NMA president delivered the welcome speech,
and then the Environment Minister inaugurated the Festival by watering a plant.
The occasion was celebrated with the speech.

The opening day saw around 7000 visitors. The bright and sunny weather kept
the festival warm and organized. Preliminary phases of National Bouldering
competition took place. People seemed highly attracted to watch climbers reach
the peak. The food stalls included food items like Tamu Food, Sausage, Mo:Mo,
Ice Cream etc. The visitors, both local and foreigners, seemed fascinated in
tasting these food, as they were seen crowding around these food stalls.

The day had a lot of exciting activities like Dohori geet (folk songs) being
continuously sang by a group of artists; bouldering (wall climbing) and chhelo
competitions; various agricultural and technological information being shared by
different stalls such as display of different types of plant seeds by Li-bird, Shitake
Mushroom and other organic vegetables by Organic Fertilizers Organization and
many more. There were classes on Bio-briquette hands-on training being held by
ICIMOD within the premises of the venue.

The programme officially ended up by 5 PM, which was followed by dinner

programme for the invited guests- Cho Oyu summiters and the Himalayan Host
Countries Meet delegates, among others. .

Day 2

The second day of the festival started early morning at 8 am. By 10 am, visitors
had started coming to the event. Many things were taking place simultaneously.
The wall climbers had started climbing boulder; the Chhelo throwing competition
had gathered good crowd; food stalls were serving delicious food; and the
exhibition stalls were being bustled by curious visitors.

At the main stage, there was group of artists singing Dohori song until 4.30 pm.
In the middle of Dhori around 3:00 PM winner of 1 st National Bouldering
Competition and Chello Competition was announced and accolade with prize
money. Winners were
Bouldering Competition

Male Mr. Sandeep, India

Female Ms. Pancha Maya Tamang, Nepal National Player.

Chello Competition

Mr. Rezan Gurung

Day 2 had more visitors than of Day 1 of around 8000. There were overwhelming
numbers of school buses, full of students that came to visit the festival.

The Festival was ended with the NMA members distributing Token of loves and
certificates to volunteers, coordinators, partners and stall participants.

Conclusions & Recommendations:

Amidst the uncertainty caused by lack of time and inadequate budget allocation,
the festival was conducted in a successful manner without major hiccups. It
managed to meet all its targets. Nonetheless, there were many shortcomings
and room for improvements. The festival, due to lack of time and budget, might
not have been able to fully achieve its proposed objectives, but it was able to
create a positive vibe among the organizer, participants and visitors. It was
difficult to bring all the desired mountain cultures from different parts of the
country, notable absence where the indigenous communities from east and west,
like sherpas, humlis and dolpos. Furthermore, there were not many interactive
and hands-on sessions on different technologies that could be resourceful for
mountain communities. But despite all the challenges, this festival was able to
create a good blend of information and entertainment, and strived to achieve its
targets. Conclusively, the festival under better circumstances could create better
social, economic and environmental impact as observed from the responses
during and after the festival.

Recommendations:
Despite the success of the festival, there are many issues that need to be
addressed such that the festival can be prepared better and propelled to a better
height in the future:

In order to fully achieve its targets via public involvement and

awareness, the organizers will need to start planning the festive at
least three months prior to the festival date.

The organizers need to broaden the scope of the activities they

want to involve in the festival, mostly comprising of all parts of
Nepal- including Terai.

The organizers need to form a proper structure for organization of

activities and delegate full authority regarding scope of the activity
and budget to the respective coordinators under pre-determined
limitations.