The federal government has ignored the local arts scene even as Penang's homegrown 'George Town Festival' has beaten the odds and drawn international acclaim and tourists.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng said that since taking over the state in 2008, the Pakatan Rakyat government has backed the festival to fill a "cultural void".

This goes against the wind of even the Culture and Tourism Ministry, when it was headed by Ng Yen Yen, which takes the stand that arts and culture should take a back seat to the country's economic development.

"Surely, we don't want Malaysia to be known worldwide only for that bomoh?" Lim asked, taking a poke at "raja bomoh" Ibrahim Mat Zin.

Ibrahim recently drew attention for his so-called traditional methods to find the missing MH370 plane.

"We feel there are more people of P Ramlee’s stature to come. The idea that art can flourish in Penang lies in the freedom we provide.

“We want to introduce the Penang ‘spirit’... which is freedom, freedom, freedom,” Lim told a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today, and went on to point out that P Ramlee was born in Penang.

World renowned dancers to perform

In its fourth instalment since 2010, the George Town Festival will be organised at a cost of more than RM3 million and will have dance performances by world renowned teams from Belgium, the United Kingdom, Australia and India, besides a play that is a Singapore-Penang joint effort.

To a question, Lim however said that there was a "sea of change" since Nazri Abdul Aziz took over as Tourism and Culture Minister from last year.  He expected the ministry may start helping with the next festival, in some form or other.

When it first started, the festival only had a budget of RM400,000, its director Joe Sidek told Malaysiakini .

He said one thing remains unchanged: the bulk of the budget for the festival comes from the Penang state coffers and not a sen from the federal government or government-linked corporations.

"The first four years were a struggle. But over the last year, we found that people wanted to come. It's beginning to make some impact, but we still need help," Joe said.

"For this year, we received more than 270 offers to help -  mostly from overseas, many from Singapore and few from Malaysia."

For the whole of August, the festival will transform the George Town, a Unesco World Heritage city, into a canvas for cross-cultural creative collaborations, with experimental art as well as traditional performances.

George Town fits the bill because it is a city for easy walking around, where the local community, corner coffee shops and traditional shops as well, are very open to visitors and artists, Joe said.

Drawing some 200,000 visitors over the last four years, Joe said, the festival grew because it offered world class art performances for almost free, thanks to the Penang government’s help.

The bulk of visitors to the George Town Festival come from Singapore and their attendance is also helped by the "90 flights a week" between the two islands, Joe said.