Slow start to Sand Fest 2016
Fans from all walks of life had to wait for almost three hours for the 2016 edition of Sand Festival to kick off.
This year’s festival was scheduled to start at 20:00 but fans had to wait to around 22:45 hours due to power failure.
The stand-by generator could not produce enough power to sustain all the music equipment, lighting and stage.
“We had everything set but the heavy duty generator we hired got burnt during the sound check. We are now using a makeshift which is not strong enough but soon we will be up and running,” said festival director, Lucius Banda.
The power interruption forced guest of honour, Minister of Culture and Civic Education, Patricia Kaliati off the stage as she waited for almost an hour to mark the official opening with a musical performance.
When the festival kicked off a few minutes before 23:00 with a performance by Soul Raiderz band, it was business as usual as fans enjoyed every moment of it.
DJ Mike C, Sally Nyundo, Sam Simakweli, Nepman, South Africa’s Zinhle of the Shumaya fame, DJs Maya and Cosmo of Zambia, Jamaica’s Turbulence all took turns to show the revellers what they are made of.
With the sun shining from a far, Banda took to the stage but could not go beyond his second song as power went off on stage and technicians were seen prancing all over the place trying to rectify the problem.
Patiently they waited and so did Banda as efforts to trace what went wrong and have power back, proved further futile and he walked off.
The fun continues today from afternoon with this year’s main international artist Diamond Platnumz from Tanzania performing alongside local artists like Black Missionaries, Sir Paul Banda and Alleluya Banda, Thoko Katimba, Dan Lu and Tay Grin.
