It’s official: Lake of Stars goes back to Nkopola
The Lake of Stars returns to the incredible Sunbird Nkopola Lodge beach this September for the 10th edition of the award-winning arts event, rated among the top festivals in Africa by CNN and Metro.
The partnership between Sunbird and LOS began in 2008 when the event took place at Livingstonia Beach and now, Nkopola is the venue.
This year’s festival will comprise of three performance areas; village, beach and lake.
“Music, theatre, poetry, film, comedy, literature and dance will all feature in the line-up with more acts to be announced in the next few weeks. A new edition for this year will be a series of talks covering topics such as technology, the creative industries and science.
“There will be a food market plus vendor stalls selling local arts and crafts. Lilongwe’s La Galleria will operate a pop-up art gallery on site to cater for all visual arts fans,” says founder Will Jameson.
This year, there is a big family focus at Lake of Stars with children aged 12 or under allowed in for free.
Said Jameson in a statement: “There will be a children’s programme of activities including storytelling, drumming workshops, jumping castles and face painting. As well as the main festival at Nkopola Lodge, there is an outreach festival that takes place on the Saturday afternoon in neighbouring Chipoka Village. Activities will include acoustic performances and a football tournament.”
According to the founder, UK and African festival directors will be attending the festival to scout for Malawian talent for their events in 2015.
“Following on from the success of City of Stars 2013 that saw Peter Mawanga booked by Celtic Connections for a Glasgow performance in January this year, LOS will continue to bring festival bookers to Malawi to help other artists progress their international careers,” he explained.
Meanwhile, LOS has announced its first ever sponsor for this year’s event; Zambia’s private airline, Proflight.
“They will bring our Zambian brothers and sisters to enjoy some Malawian hospitality. Zambian superstars will fly Proflight to perform on Lake Malawi this September,” he said.
Since 2004 the Lake of Stars project has staged an award-winning festival on the shores of Lake Malawi, alongside other events in the UK and across the globe.
