Hundreds of people from around the world marched through Suva on March 28, 1998, on the eve of the finale of the World Festival of Praise.
An article in The Fiji Times the next day quoted festival secretary Mikaele Mudreilagi who said that although the attendance at the march was not as high as the inaugural festival in 1997, it was nevertheless very successful from a spiritual point of view.
Minister for Youth Jonetani Kaukimoce addressed the crowd who gathered at Sukuna Park for three hours of singing, dancing and devotional speeches.
He said the government supported the festival for its contribution, especially in the involvement of young people.
On the participation and involvement of children, especially during the time spent during the school terms, Mr Mudreilagi said kids only took part after school, from 6 to 8.30pm, after which they were sent home.
“During the day, they do not come here. But to be honest, we have to expect some opposition to anything good,” Mr Mudreilagi said.
“In an event such as this, money is a definite spin-off. But for us, that is a blessing to the nation as a whole.
“Whether you are speaking in terms of the economy, in terms of increased visitor arrivals, in terms of benefits to the transport and accommodation sectors, they are still blessings.”
In 1997, the festival had made around $25,000 from gate takings, registration fees and programs, yet it still made a loss.
The hire of facilities, transport costs, sound equipment, lighting and stage facilities contributed to the deficit.
“This year, we are looking forward to at least breaking even. But we are praying that there will be some left over, so we can use that to prepare for the next festival since this is an ongoing thing.”
The next Festival of Praise was to be held from December 26, 1999 to January 2, 2000 to take advantage of the interest associated with the new millennium.
“The whole idea of that was to make Christians from all over the world come and celebrate with Christians in Fiji.
“Fiji has a strategic position in being one of the first nations to experience the first day of the new millennium.”
Plans were not finalised by then, but Mr Mudreilagi said organisers had two options for the following year.
“We could probably have one celebration on a smaller scale in December, or we could have a big celebration in March and a small one in December.”
The reason for scaling down the December celebration was simple – overseas visitors had already made bookings for events unrelated to the Festival of Praise.
With Christians who wanted to come here as well, there were fears that there may not be enough hotel rooms to cater for everyone.
“International awareness has been encouraging as can be seen from the increase in the number of countries involved in this year’s celebrations, but there may not be enough planes to bring visitors here.”
