‘Mzuzu is not fun-starved’
Squirrels Park, a performance venue in Mzuzu, celebrated its first anniversary last week with a show dubbed Night of the Giants where the Black Missionaries, Anthony Makondetsa, Lucius Banda and the Zembani Band performed. The venue has clocked a year in its quest to promote arts and entertainment in the city which others love to describe as ‘fun-starved’. Our reporter JOHN CHIRWA engages Squirrels Park managing director Keliophas Tobias to discuss opportunities and challenges of managing events in the city.
Q: You have clocked a year since opening Squirrels Park. What’s your experience so far?
A
: It is true we have clocked a year as Squirrels Park here in Mzuzu. We opened the venue on July 31 2016 with a show headlined by Zambia’s musician General Kanene. Since then, it has been back to back entertainment shows. Almost, every month, we made sure that we had an event at the venue. We hosted all kinds of musicians—those who do reggae, urban music, gospel and traditional. We also had both local and international artists.
Q
: Others say Mzuzu is fun-starved. What is your take?
A
: No. Mzuzu is not fun-starved. People in Mzuzu love entertainment. The only problem is that the city lacked modern or spacious venues. As a result, not so many artists would come for performances. Even for the international shows, the artists would only perform in Lilongwe and Blantyre. We have changed all that arrangement. With Squirrels Park as a modern performance venue, we have hosted Kanene, US’s Da Truth, and Lucky Dube’s Band. This was not the case in previous years. We have also seen a surge of local performances in the city. So, Mzuzu is no longer fun-starved.
Q
: How are you celebrating your anniversary?
A
:We had a performance which was themed Night of the Giants last week. We had the Black Missionaries, Lucius Banda and the Zembani Band. The show was so overwhelming. People supported us massively. Of course, we had some challenges, but we tried to overcome them. The anniversary was massive.
We also intend to donate some of the proceeds of the show to Mzuzu Prison inmates. Our focus will be on children and their mothers. We are targeting children because we believe that they haven’t committed any crime. They are there because of their parents. We feel that they don’t deserve such punishment. So, we want to lessen the suffering with items that they lack.
Q
: There had been security lapses at the venue. Some customers lost items in their vehicles at the car park. How have you sorted out such issues?
A
: Security lapses which we discovered have been sorted out. During the last show, we had maximum security. We hired eight police officers and other security individuals to tighten up security. So, this time around we didn’t receive any complaint of theft.
Q
: The shows at the venue usually have massive attendance despite pegging the entry fee on a higher side. Why is that the case?
A
: As Squirrels Park, we realised that we shouldn’t take our fans for granted. We need to advertise shows for not less than a month. People need to know about a show in advance so that they prepare and save money for such an event. Otherwise, patronage would be affected. So, as summer has started, we promise more shows for the city. Our next event is on September 3 2017. We are hosting Dan Lu and Saint. We advise people to continue patronising our shows and we will not relent in inviting more artists.n
