But there are downsides to the trend, according to some experts.

"Festivals have become a tool for some local governments to get money," said Zhou Xiaozheng, a professor at the sociology department of the Renmin University of China.

"While they can provide tax revenue, they can also provide opportunities for corruption."

As time passes, some traditional festivals are also changing, and not always for the better, experts said.

During Monihei, a traditional celebration in May of the Wa ethnic group in Yunnan province, people try to paste a natural black dye on each other's face as a blessing for health and luck. But in recent years, the celebration has evolved into a form of "kiss orgy" in some cases, according to a report of China News Service on Thursday, citing a female tourist returning from Yunnan province.According to rumors circulating on micro blogs and Internet chat forums, the Chuxiong Yi autonomous prefecture in Yunnan province was considering applying for world cultural heritage status for a "Breast-Touching Festival". During the three-day festival in the lunar month of July, young women would expose one breast for any man to touch. Those whose breasts were touched would take that as an auspicious sign. Later, however, the Chuxiong government rejected the posts as purely fabricated.

"Some government officials in backward areas have not received adequate education and become money-oriented regardless of the tradition and law," Lu said. "This is a main reason such absurd things could happen."

Invited to tour a county in Hubei province, Lu found the county government was trying to set up a festival on a nearby mountain, called Lulin, the site of an ancient uprising against government that later became synonymous with robbing the rich to give to the poor.

Later, the government gave up the idea at Lu's suggestion. "It is obviously inappropriate to propagate such a culture in modern society," Lu said.

While conceding that the number of festivals has been increasing rapidly in recent years, Zhang Chengdong, secretary-general of the Jiangsu Festivals and Events Association, said this trend would be checked.

"The central government has issued regulations to limit the expansion of festivals, so, hopefully, the number will not increase too much in the next two to three years," he said.

"Local government, the main driving force behind the growing number, should gradually withdraw from directly participating in economic activities and make providing public service its main function," said Lu. "This is the key to checking the increase in festivals."