Mud, BBQ, rides and drunks…It must be Hibiscus August 19, 2007

Suva‘s annual Hibiscus Festival will not be Hibiscus if it doesn’t rain and there’s no mud.

So I’m happy to report that it most definitely is Hibiscus week with Albert Park now a slushpit through which happy children drag along their unimpressed parents.

I half-heartedly went with my friend and nephew on Saturday night, knowing full well the condition of the ground but tried to take in the sights and sounds as best I could.

While I was hungry, the nephew insisted on first having a go on one of those rides – this one was locally-made “motorbikes” going around endlessly on a fixed track.

Several rides were not operating, including Ferris Wheels and some children’s rides. It was probably because there were not enough people to ride them.

And it was apparent from the turnout. Although a good number of people flooded the festival, it was unlike anything seen in previous years, especially on the first Saturday of the festival.

But the rides that were operating were not doing too badly. One Ferris Wheel operator had a line of eager patrons stretching some 30 metres – and this was going on to midnight.

The line could probably be explained by the long and loud screams coming from those on the ride which seemed to be going dangerously fast. Young and old wanted a piece of the thrill.

Earlier in the evening, at about 7pm, the famous Octopus ride broke down with riders still sitting in it. After some 15 minutes of tinkering with the engine and after re-filling the fuel tank, the mechanics managed to make it slowly spin around so the stranded passengers could get off.

With the intermittent showers of rain threatening to put us off, the three of us decided to pay ($5 per adult) to sit in the pavillion along with about less than 100 people to watch the entertainment.

Incidentally, the Kingsford Smith Pavillion, has now apparently been renamed the “King Or Smith P Villion” on account of several long-fallen off letters.

At one point during the entertainment, the queens arrived, parading across the sandy patch in front of the stage to a marquee on the other side sponsored by Fijilive.

Some waved to the handful of people seated in the pavillion, while most were just worried about their high-heels getting stuck in the sand.

They were followed a while later by the teen queens, the lady queens and then the Hibiscus kings, most of whom just grinned their way across the pitch, apart from one who waved and blew kisses enthusiastically to the audience.

The entertainment was okay. It could have been better but we must make do I suppose. Aiyub Ali Khan, who was touted by the MC as the “best” karaoke singer in Fiji brought laughter and hoots with his off-tune rendition of UB 40’s Reasons. His saving grace was perhaps a cross-dressing dancer called “Sanjata”, or something like that, who put Bollywood to shame, twisting and arching across the stage.

The Shangri-La Fijian Resort’s dancers were awesome. Their antics with fire sticks and acrobatic moves brought claps and cheers.

Most of those who braved the fitful weather to visit Albert Park congregated along Southern Cross Road. This is where most of the food stalls are located selling everything from Chinese to lovo to BBQ and hotdogs, hamburgers, BBQ and kebabs, curry – and yet more BBQ.

If the food stalls are anything to go by, BBQ is the all-time favourite food of Fiji Islanders.

During the entertainment, the nephew kept nagging for a ride on the Ferris Wheel, but the rain and mud was our excuse to remain in the pavillion. We finally decided to move well after 11pm.

We bought tickets for what seemed like a harmless enough Ferris Wheel. However, I changed my mind when the ride began to slowly speed up. I couldn’t help wondering if the lock on the bar holding us into our basket would not give way, especially when it felt like I was being flung into the night sky every time the basket neared the top.

Mercifully, just when I thought I would throw up, the ride began slowing down and we were let off.

Nearing midnight we walked to the Coca Cola booth on the far side of the park where an attempt was being made to keep the mainly young crowd dancing. But a couple of drunk guys shaking atop the enclosure improvised from old bottle crates threatened to collapse the structure and they were kindly ask to climb down. One did but another acted the goat while coming down until he was pushed by someone on the ground and ended up injuring his leg after falling badly.

This was when we decided to call it a night.

Walking back to the centre of town to catch a taxi home, we ran the gauntlet of drunks – young, old, school kids, and yes, Hibiscus queens (well Miss Unwired at least) trying to get into Traps. [UPDATE: Miss Unwired was NOT trying to get into Traps as I alleged. See retraction here.]

There were at least a thousand people on the streets all trying to get home, to the next party or just hanging around in dark spots.

A lot of Queen Victoria School students were also out celebrating – at Albert Park and probably in the clubs as well – their 7-5 win over arch-rivals Ratu Kadavulevu School for the Deans Rugby trophy.

On a final note, a story on Fiji Times Online on Saturday seemed a bit strange, given that it rained intermittently – and heavily at times throughout the day – at least in my corner of Suva.

It was probably fine in town during the float parade around midday, but at that time it was raining where I was just five minutes from the centre of town, so I’m not sure where the writer (or editor) got this analysis from:

“With today’s fine, sunny weather people will flock to the ground in droves to enjoy the food, drinks and rides.”

Fine, sunny weather?

Well that’s Fiji for you. Sometimes things don’t make sense but you just go with the flow.

The Hibiscus Festival jinx August 16, 2007

It seems the capital city’s flagship carnival, the Hibiscus Festival, is jinxed by bad weather.

The carnival was opened earlier than scheduled on Wednesday to cater for the school children who had their two-week holiday brought forward because of the Fijian Teachers’ Association strike.

But the weather was not fooled. A hallmark of the annual week-long festival has been bleak weather that descends on Suva at the start of the festival and always seems to lift once it’s over.

So true to form, the clouds gathered over Suva on Wednesday and today poured out of the heavens.

I chatted briefly today with Leibling Marlow (nee Hoeflich), the first Miss Hibiscus, and she rolled her eyes when I asked her what she thought of the weather.

When she was crowned as the first Hibiscus queen in December 1956, it rained during the two-day affair. They changed the dates several times, she said, moving it to January and eventually settling on August. The atrocious weather followed the festival.

She suggested the organising committee take a tabua to the Tui Suva and ask him to at least open the festival or play some part in it.

The jinx, she feels, will be lifted if they traditionally approach the senior chief on whose traditional lands the city of Suva stands.

She says as far as she remembers, the Tui Suva, has never been approached to participate in the nation’s best known carnival.

In an interview I had with Marlow last year, she lamented the lost glory of the festival. In the early years of the festival, most businesses in Suva would decorate their show windows intricately and glamourously, floats would be big and imaginative and there was a genuine all-round feeling of festivity.

Not so anymore. Fifty-one years after the first carnival was organised by the Junior Chamber of Commerce, it’s become an institution but also a lacklustre one.