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Macau has a history of supporting the arts, but does it have the potential to become a festival city to rival Edinburgh and Cannes? Clare Morin reports

Several years ago, when Macau’s “Vegas in the making” status began to start gathering pace, Benny Chia, founder of the Hong Kong Fringe Club, made a quirky projection – he reasoned that our neighbour had the potential to become a “festival city” along the lines of Edinburgh or Cannes.

His case was based on Macau’s serendipitous combination of being a small city with a large number of heritage sites and a comparatively slower pace of life, factors that would suit an annual world-class festival.

The casinos are now making millions, and global draws like Celine Dion and Cirque du Soleil are rolling into town on the promise of massive audiences. Although the Macau government has long had a reputation for supporting the arts, building the state-of-the-art Macau Cultural Centre and Museum for an urban area with a population of less than one million, it is still unclear where art fits in a city that’s turning more towards The Strip than Museum Mile.

Boyce Lam from the Instituto Cultural, the city’s arts body, says they are taking an insular approach to the festival, billing it as a festival for local residents, adding that they would prefer to avoid sponsorship opportunities with the casinos to boost the festival’s budget of nine million patacas. “If other companies come and sponsor the festival they might want to keep seats for their patrons, which would keep Macau residents from having them,” Lam explains.

The Macau Arts Festival is the younger of two annual arts festivals held in Macau. The International Music Festival in October, which had Warren Mok at the helm, features acclaimed international companies. For May, international performing arts shows have been plucked off the conveyer belt of international companies touring other Asian cities, with additional companies drawn from the mainland. The feel is fringe and immensely family friendly. “The support is not enough to invite bigger, more well-known acts,” explains Lam. “The festival was actually moved back from March to May last year so that we could be connected to good shows coming to festivals around Asia.”

Attending this year will be Israel’s The Aluminum Show and its unique fusion of acrobatic dance and visual theatre, while Canada’s 4D Art return to the festival with a dazzling, multimedia interpretation of The Tempest, using state-of-the-art technology. There are also seven local progammes in dance, theatre, and music, more than double  last year’s number. One of interest is an original play about casino fever called Sórti Dóci (Sweet Luck). According to Miguel de Senna Fernandes, the play’s director and playwright, the government is simply not doing enough for the festival.

“The Macau government has no excuse to say they have no money for this arts festival,” says Fernandes emphatically. “That excuse doesn’t work anymore. It was an argument ten years ago. It would be an insult if Macau was to say it doesn’t have any money for culture. The government can use the money from casinos; they can and they should. It’s a moral obligation to improve the cultural arena, the cultural environment in Macau.” He adds that the government should also be pouring funds into local arts groups, allowing them more opportunities to perform in the festival and creating institutions to train a new generation of theatre workers. “There are local groups that deserve some respect and encouragement. Let’s start by looking at our own roots.”

It’s these Macau roots, and the heritage sites used as performance venues, that are the real strength of the festival. The Macau Orchestra’s Chamber series on May 3, for example, takes place in the atmospheric setting of the Dom Pedro V Theatre, a neo-classical venue built in 1860. Mohiniyattam Indian Classical Dance by Pallavi Krishnan takes place at the traditional courtyard house of the Lou Kau Mansion, built in 1889.

With such unusual venues and an overabundance of hotel rooms to bed inbound arts lovers, one can’t help but think that if the vision of the government arts organisers and the casinos could merge just a little more, then Macau would truly be more than just a “Las Vegas of the East”.

Macau Arts Festival, Thur 1 to May 30. Enquiries: (853) 2855 5555; www.icm.gov.mo/fam. Online bookings: www.macauticket.com.