LoS tickets expensive—Malawians
Some Malawians have described as exorbitant gate fees for this year’s Lake of Star (LoS) annual festival.
The event returns on the beautiful sands of Sunbird Nkopola in Mangochi with three performance areas; village, beach and lake. Music, theatre, poetry, film, comedy, literature and dance will all feature in the line-up with a new edition for this year being a series of talks covering topics such as technology, the creative industries and science.
The organisers have since announced gate charges with early bird tickets available from May 3.
Advance tickets are pegged at K21 000 (US$50) only for the month of May and after that patrons will pay K31 000 (US$74).
“…Tickets will be on sale in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu from Saturday 3rd May… also note that the site capacity is not increasing. There are just 3 000 tickets on sale. We are experiencing high demand for tickets from across Africa, so buy a ticket and guarantee your place at this year’s festival,” reads a status update on LoS Facebook page.
However, the news has not gone down well with some Malawians who say the entry fees are way too much for many locals.
“As far as I know this festival is not for Malawians with that amount! No Malawian local will benefit from this festival. At least the amount would have come down for the locals,” responded Gift Gama on the post.
Kennedy Banda added: “It is too expensive. Please think twice when you are making the prices.
K31 000 is USD 100 bank rate. This is bad news for the locals. Please don’t be so greedy when it comes to prices.” In response, the page administrator justifies the fee arguing that it constitutes for three days entertainment.
“International tickets are currently priced at £90 or K60 000 (US$143). Local price at K21 000 is fair, this is for three days entertainment across three stages with music and art from the morning until the early hours.”
The administrators of the page defended the fees arguing that with over 60 artists performing from Malawi, Europe and across Africa, the price for local tickets cost a third of the international price.
“There will also be promo offers with our partners coming soon. Keep an eye on here for all festival news,” said the administrators of the page.
