Baf bemoans funding
Blantyre Arts Festival (Baf) which last year celebrated its 10th anniversary is still exploring more ways to get funding before announcing this year’s event.
Baf Executive Director, Thom Chibambo, could not be drawn to say when they will hold the festival this year.
The festival is held in the month of October every year but Chibambo, said for now, they are not ready to make any announcement until everything is in black and white.
Baf, Lake of Stars, Sand Music and Tumaini are some of the major festivals that people look forward to every year.
However, Lake of Stars last Friday announced that they were going on a one-year break to refresh on their recent exploits.
Organisers of the festival which was held at Kachere Kastle in Nkhata Bay last year have since they will be involved in other activities this year despite going on a break.
Chibambo said many events were struggling due to inadequate funding.
“For now we cannot come out to announce our position. We are going to announce our position regarding this year once we have funding in place which we are still discussing for fundraising elsewhere,” Chibambo said Wednesday.
He said they would also want to line-up a number of fundraising activities as they look ahead to the festival.
“We have been relying on funding from Cultural Fund Malawi but we need to reach out to other players. It is all about doing more but I should admit that things are not moving the way we wanted them to. The economy is not that good and this is why even the corporate world is not willing to come out and support the creative industry,” Chibambo said.
The festival last year saw a number of activities with Black Missionaries and Soldier Lucius Banda performing.
