Ministry to intervene in festival calendar

After a first attempt to create a harmonised festival calendar collapsed, the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture has said it will hold a similar meeting in preparation for next year.

This follows the collision of Blantyre Arts Festival (BAF) and Sunbird Sand Festival this past weekend.

Director of culture in the ministry Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu said this at Nkopola Lodge in Mangochi during the official opening of the three-day Sunbird Sand Festival.

However, the director said her ministry was ignorant of the collision and that everything was normal.

“We thought everything is normal because none of the two organisers came to us to complain, but we also feel that it is not mutual. We are happy that we are now having many festivals and we do not want to see setbacks destroying the promising future in festivals. We will intervene so that it does not happen again unless both sides have no problem about it,” said Gomani-Chindebvu.

She added that her ministry usually meets organisers of events and it is during these moments when such issues are tackled.

However, at the consultative meeting held earlier this year Sand Festival organisers were not present. Ministry officials said all festival organisers had been invited but some chose not to come.

BAF has been taking place during the first week of October and Sunbird Sand Festival which is in its second year has no set dates.

Coordinator of Sunbird Sand Festival Lucius Banda in an earlier interview revealed that they changed dates to first week of October because it is the weekend when most people have money and there were fears that the rainy season might start during the second and third weeks of the month, thereby disturbing the festival’s purpose—to create summer fun at the lake.

BAF’s executive director Thomas Chibambo also told The Nation that they would not change dates of the festival because the date is part of the festival’s identity.

One of the country’s talent managers, Kimpho Loka said the industry is still young with few artists and having such calendar is not only healthy for artists but the audience as well.

“For artists to travel such distance within 12 hours would definitely affect their performances, which is not good not only for the artists but their fans as they would not give their best and their fans would not get the best,” said Loka.

The clash created challenges for some artists who had to perform at both events. For instance, urban artists Piksy and Maskal, had a busy weekend, as they were expected to perform at UNFPA’s Condomize! campaign at the College of Medicine on Friday night and Saturday afternoon, and at Sand Fest on Friday night. The artists were also expected to perform at the Blantyre Arts Festival on Saturday evening.

Maskal managed to hit all venues with his soul ballards, but Piksy failed to perform Saturday after he lost his voice due to a cold.