By Samar Al-Mogren
ALL over the world when a government department organizes a cultural event or festival, the entry will be either free of charge or for a nominal fee. We Saudis, who are new to the world of entertainment, were extremely happy when the Entertainment Authority organized such a world-class event locally.
But the fabulous fees charged for taking part in the events held in Riyadh and Jeddah took me by surprise. I wondered how a government department could charge such an unbelievable amount as ticket fee when it receives funding from the national budget.
I am not saying such world-class programs with outstanding entertainment content should be conducted without taking any fees. My opinion is that such programs should not be organized by government departments to make a profit. On the other hand, the charges should be just to meet the expenses.
Even if the charges were less than the cost price, it would not be considered a courtesy from the authority because it receives funding from the government to organize such programs. It should not have charged huge fees to exploit people who love to attend such events inside the Kingdom.
I don’t want to go tough on the Entertainment Authority, which is still in its nascent stage. There have been some issues surrounding the authority being the entertainment creator. Some argue the programs organized by the authority are not well-studied and addresses only a specific group of people.
This specific group actually does not need the authority’s programs as they are capable of visiting foreign countries to enjoy such events several times in a year. The group that is really in need of such entertainment is the one that cannot pay SR2,000 for a three-hour musical evening. They also can’t afford to travel abroad to enjoy world-class entertainment from its original and natural sources.
I can see the determination of the Entertainment Authority to do something good for people. But the problem is those who make its plans are from the upper class who travel abroad several times for amusement and they don’t find any problem in spending thousands of riyals to enjoy an orchestra.
I like to remind the authority that it should make plans addressing all segments of people and must keep in mind ordinary people while deciding programs fees because if these people want to travel abroad to enjoy such programs they have to take loans or sell the jewelry of their wives. Many of them cannot go abroad because they have not taken out passports and they will be very happy to attend such world-class entertainment programs in their cities.
These are people who really deserve to be entertained by the authority but unfortunately they are not able to attend its programs because of unaffordable charges and they watch them from a distance like the hungry look at food that they cannot taste. I would like to quote a saying of the Prophet (peace be upon him) who said: “The worst feast is one in which only the rich are invited and the poor are left out.
