The chaos in festivals

Since the coming in of Malawian festivals in 2003, with Lake of Stars breaking the ice, there has been a boom in the number of the carnivals.

Although this has helped celebrate cultural heritage, expose Malawian artists and boost Malawis tourism, there has been lack of coordination in the organisation of the festivals.

In 2010, there was a clash between Lake of Stars and Sand Music festivals which were held the same weekend in the same district. With Lake of Stars at Nkopola and Sun Music festival at Zithere Pano Leisure Centre in the same district of Mangochi, patronage was divided.

The same pattern repeated itself last year when Blantyre Arts Festival and Sunbird Sand Music Festival fell on the same weekend.

Although the Ministry of Information Tourism and Culture promised to coordinate the events by producing a festival calendar where organisers of national festivals would have to register before holding the events, patrons of different festivals, who were hoping for a more organised festive summer, have been disappointed again.

During the last weekend of August, five festicals—Sunbird Sand Festival, Likoma Sand Festival, Mwezi Wawala Arts Fesival, Kulamba and Umhlangano wa Maseko—clashed.

One of Likoma Sand Festival’s organisers, Peter Chiwaula, said his team e-mailed the ministry in May to book for the October 30 to 31 weekend which, he said, was blank that time.

“After we settled for that weekend, the ministry called us the same week to say the weekend had already been booked, so, we had to settle for August 29 to 31. We were only late with adverts, but we had already booked the spot,” said Chiwaula.

He said the clash of events not only made hiring of artists difficult, but also divided patrons, ending in a “lose-lose” situation.

Misheck Mzumara, projects officer at Nanzikambe Arts, organisers of Mwezi Wawala Arts Festival, defended the organisation’s decision to settle for the busy weekend, saying they always hold the festival during the last week of August in accordance with the lunar calendar.

“During this time, part of the full moon is seen, so, we will continue to hold it during this time, unless we change the name. However, changing a name is not something we are intending to do—not anytime soon,” said Mzumara.

He said that although the clash affected their patronage, the musicians they use are not main-stream, thus they were not affected in terms of artists.

“We use street acoustic performers, not mainstream artists, so we did not have any problems with hiring artists, but we had patrons coming for just a day because they wanted to go to other festivals,” he said.

Chief coordinator for Sunbird Sand Festival, Peter Nkhwachi Mhango, said they were surprised to see an advert of Likoma Sand Festival falling on the same weekend.

“We had booked for the dates earlier and we had confirmation [that we had the weekend],” said Mhango.

He said that the collision of the events cost them patronage as some prospective fans patronised other festivals.

Efforts to speak to the ministry’s public relations officer proved futile, but a source inside the ministry, who opted for anonymity, as he is not authorised to speak for the ministry, blamed the chaos on the absence of a cultural policy.

“It is not hard to coordinate heritage festivals, such as Kulamba and Umhlangano wa Maseko as they have fixed dates, but the music and arts festivals can be adjusted.

“But in the absence of the cultural policy, our hands are tied. The only thing that the ministry can do is to give advice and coordinate the calendar, but we cannot impose,” he said.

He added that the other problem is that festival sponsors fan the chaos as they dictate the dates on which the festivals should be held.

But in an interview during the inauguration of Sand Festival, on August 29, Minister of information, Tourism and Culture Kondwani Nankhumwa said government would intervene by bringing together arts festival organisers and helping them work on their calendars.

“We will have to coordinate the festivals by bringing them together, but this can be done with the help of the organisers will,” said Nankhumwa.