No Lake of Stars this year

Followers of Lake of Stars (LoS) Arts Festival should forget about the golden or white sands along the waters of Lake Malawi.

Instead, for those who can manage, London, the city of England, is the place to be in November this year.

This is because organisers said there will be no LoS festival in Malawi this year which takes place on the fine beaches of Lake Malawi.

They said it will return next year in September for its 15th anniversary.

LoS founder Will Jameson said in an interview on Friday they will hold a concert in London to act as a warm up event for the 2018 festival.

“We are not moving the festival to Europe, but we are starting extra events in Europe that will create a platform for Malawian artists and Malawian tourism.

“We always want to be exporting Malawian talent as well as importing tourists into Malawi and also to have a stronger presence in UK which means to promote Malawi in a special way,” said Jameson.

However, Jameson told UK’s The Guardian newspaper last year that he considers holding the festival in Europe because challenges in Malawi have increased in the 12 years since he started the event.

“I think it’s got harder,” he was quoted by the edition of October 7 2016. “Malawi’s economy is in a bad way. We haven’t increased our ticket prices.

“It’s K32 000 for three days—if we’d followed the devaluation it should be about K48 000.

“Times are tough, but we’re still very passionate.”

Jameson said he is now looking into flipping the model and bringing artists to Europe.

Meanwhile, the organisers said in a press statement released on Thursday that this year they will instead be supporting Malawi’s festival organisers with workshops and trainings.

“Our year has already kicked off successfully with the special youth-focused Festival of Ideas last Saturday at the incredible, but underused Kamuzu Institute in Lilongwe.

“In the months ahead there will be workshops and ongoing support for creative projects such as the Tumaini Festival as we continue to work with other Malawian festival organisers.” n