SandFest is an international event
The 10th anniversary of Sand Music Festival is done, but not forgotten. However, a lot happened at Sunbird Livingstonia Beach in Salima where the highlight was temporal suspension of the show after rain soaked the equipment. In this interview with our reporter YVONNIE SUNDU, the festival’s founder Lucius Banda comments on the event and issues surrounding Covid-19, among others.
Q
: You have described the 10th edition as the most successful Sand Music Festival. But the event had several challenges such as suspension of the programme on Saturday and an angry reaction of fans on Sunday over delays to start performances. What do you say about that?
A
: It depends on how one measures the festival. The fact that we can bring musicians who are right now making sense in the world is a success. Diamond Platnumz is rocking the world right now. Master KG, if you go on YouTube, his song is an anthem for Covid-19 and that’s why we invited him. To invite both of them is no mean achievement. That takes a lot of organisation.
W
e cannot give the best organisation, for example in Salima, we have an accommodation problem whereby if the entourages of the musicians alone were to come in full and sleep at this hotel, it will be filled with them alone. So, it’s not up to Sand Music Festival, it is up to the whole country as this thing has become so big that now Zambians, Tanzanians and Mozambicans are coming to attend. It is now up to government to step in and say; let’s now nurse this baby. If we had 5 000 people, you should calculate how many meals have been bought, not to mention full tanks of fuel.
T
he financial activity this thing attracted this weekend is just big. If I am not wrong, this week fuel companies will be wondering why they made so much money. And they will look aside because morally they did not participate in what actually made them that much money. We are Malawians, we are like that. I don’t want to talk about people that have left their homes in Salima and have gone to Chipoka because they have rented out their houses for people attending SandFest. And we are talking about 2000 houses. They made money and are happy and the DC talked about that. No one cares about how the young people who organise this thing feel. These people who have organised this have for the past nine years walked back home with losses, but a lot of corporations make millions and go home. So, we are very good at organising because we do it for the whole country.
Q
: With what has happened in the context of the rains, there have been suggestions, especially on social media, for the organisers to consider shifting the dates of the festival to, for example, August. Is this something the team will consider?
A
: Very true. But you might want to know that days for these festivals in this country are regulated by the Ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture. We are actually supposed to negotiate with the ministry. As of now, end of September is occupied by Lake of Stars, I think August belongs to Sound and Light Festival, first week of October belongs to Blantyre Arts Festival and we were given end of October. So, we are stuck. We would have loved to be given a better time like September end when we are guaranteed that there will be no rains, but we need to negotiate with the ministry. Believe you me, the work involved, the begging that we do around to get resources to put up this thing, we wouldn’t target a day we knew it would rain. When we knew it was going to rain, we were thinking of how best to handle it but there’s nothing we can do.
Q
: You have organised this for 10 years. What is your assessment of the standards?
A
: This country is ours and fortunately, my belief is, I just have to contribute what I can. The only way I can contribute is using the talent that God gave me. The old women who were selling food, they will go home and say, thank you Lucius, you brought us a festival and I am satisfied.
Q
: When dates for the festival were announced, some people had reservations because of Covid-19. There were measures set up to minimise the spread of the virus. Are you impressed with the level of fans adhering to the measures during the festival?
A
: I have seen different diseases leprosy, smallpox, measles come and go. Then HIV and Aids came and is living with us. Covid-19 has come and it is here to stay. I am not going to give up my life for coronavirus. I am not going to stop singing because of it. I am going to find a way to live with it and I think that’s what all of us should do. When we were told we cannot perform, I asked questions as I saw that there were double standards on the matter because I saw political rallies being conducted. So, I said, if you stop Sand Music Festival, I will stop your by-elections because I see people not wearing masks in those rallies. So, why should you stop my music or a musician to perform or a wedding? I stood my ground and argued my case as we need to be practical. We had buckets for washing hands and those that wanted to wear masks did and some did not. That’s life.
Q
: Some people have complained of having their cars broken into. You hired people from Dzaleka Refugees Camp to offer security. Does this mean you made a change in approaching this matter?
A
: On security we really have a problem. We have thieves amongst us and that’s the case everywhere. We sometimes engage security that turns out to be an aid of the thief. The few times we have tried our friends from Dzaleka, we realise and they prefer to do the job to impress the employer. It is not the first time as we have done so for two or three years. We are saying Malawians have now learnt that if you cannot do the job yourself, we will give it to outsiders. Next year we will try Malawians again but akhala akutiliza.
