20 Jun 2014

PNG festival seen as job opportunity

10:39 am on 20 June 2014

The organisers of the 5th Melanesian Festival of Arts and Culture says it wants the festival to be treated as an investment and employment opportunity for young people.

The festival begins on 28th June in the Papua New Guinea capital and will run for two weeks.

The main festival is to be held in Port Moresby, but the different countries involved will also travel out to four different areas for regional events, to ensure as many people as possible in PNG are involved.

The overall co-ordinator of the festival's events, Mali Voi, says they intend to turn these cultural activities into employment opportunities.

"A lot of people just think that festivals are singing and dancing and extravagance. No, we want to turn it into an investment in opportunities after the festival, that's where the difference is, is we want to turn it into an investment for young people so that they can get into cultural industries."

The overall co-ordinator of the 5th Melanesian Festival of Arts in Papua New Guinea, Mali Voi.