Sand Fest ticket sales to delay
Organisers of the Sand Festival, Impakt Events, say sales of tickets to this year’s event will start late.
The event runs from October 28 to 30.
Impakt Events managing director Lucius Banda said yesterday the development is a result of the organisers working on measures to curb fraud that negatively affected last year’s revenue.
He said: “We will start selling tickets a bit late because we are working on special security features. Those buying fake tickets will be caught at the gate.”
In August, the outfit complained that event organisers rarely benefit from their investment because of fraud.
As a result, Impakt Events partnered National Bank of Malawi and sold tickets to the Busy Signal show at Civo Stadium in Lilongwe on September 3 through the bank’s Mo626 mobile platform.
This year’s Sand Festival will see patrons buying tickets using Telekom Networks Malawi’s Mpamba money transaction platform.
Meanwhile, Banda said his outfit wanted this year’s headline musician, Diamond Platnumz of Tanzania, to headline last year’s event, but turned to Jamaican Busy Signal after failing to book the Tanzanian.
He said: “We promised fans that this year’s Sand Music Festival will be bigger and better by bringing another big name. And that big artist is Diamond Platnumz. You may wish to know that we failed to hire his services last year; hence, our settling for Busy Signal.”
Banda said the event seeks to promote African artists, hence Diamond Platnumz’s choice as the main act.
He said the event is also scheduled to attract Genaral Kanene and Organised Family from Zambia, Zinhle Ngidi from South Africa and Tay Grin, The Black Missionaries, Lulu, Dan Lu and Edgar ndi Davis, among others, from Malawi.
Born Naseeb Abdul Juma, Diamond Platnumz is famous for songs such as Number One and Ukimwona, which has a pasada touch.
He has also collaborated with other musicians on a number of songs, including Wapata Mari by high-selling Zimbabwean musician Jah Prayzah. He has also recorded with the Nigerian duo of P-Square.
Diamond Platnumz also performed during the Big Brother 7 eviction show in 2012 and has bagged a number of awards at Channel O.
In 2013, he was believed to be the highest selling artist of ringtones to mobile phone companies in Tanzania. n
