Blantyre Food Festival gets warm reception
The Blantyre Food Festival, spearheaded by Amakhosi Functions and Events, debuted on Saturday at Green Valley Gardens along the Chikwawa road receiving a good reception.
The event was dubbed food festival, but it was not an all food outing per say, as apart from being treated to food which was being sold at different food stalls, people also had time to buy different items which included artworks.
There were also music performances-including a warm-up act from Rusty Nails, a group which is expected to hold a show in the heart of Blantyre this coming Saturday.
Fashion designer Temwa Msiska also exhibited her works under her Kaso Tailor Made Clothing and Accessories.
It was an event which brought families together and children had their own area created by BeesNKidz which among others provided inflatables, a water slide, balloon twisting and face painting.
Amakhos i Func t ions and Events, also known for organising the Wedding Expo organised the event in partnership with various stakeholders, including Biz Malawi and Blantyre City Council.
Amakhos i Func t ions and Events’ Liz de Klerk hailed people for coming in large numbers and said their presence made the event historical.
“What prompted us to come up with this Blantyre Food Festival is the fact that Blantyre, is dead. There is just nothing for the public to do in Blantyre especially over weekends. So we Blantyre Food Festival were born for the sake of people living in Blantyre,” said Liz de Klerk.
Liz de Klerk said they will continue with the event, adding that they were happy to bring families together over food.
However, there were no food stalls from locals selling local foods with people sampling foods like hot dogs, cheese and wine, chicken dishes, finger foods, bagels and cakes.
Mayor of the City of Blantyre Noel Chalamanda hailed Amakhosi Functions and Events for coming up with the event which he said brought families together to have fun for once.
“This is a very good event and very innovative. It is well organised and as Blantyre City Council we welcome this food festival. It is a food festival but it brought families together to enjoy and this was all in the spirit of togetherness. We have problems but inside these problems we should also have time to get together,” he said.
During the event, the Mayor, who came with his family, took time out to interact with people and also moved through the different food stalls which were mounted before addressing the people later.
Chalamanda called on event organisers to come up with brilliant ideas which would help propel the city of Blantyre, saying the council will all be there to offer its support.
“I am even extremely happy because others were selling their different items aimed at raising funds to go towards supporting orphans in the country. We saw some selling their old novels, old clothes and many other things and so we need to support all these causes otherwise we have so many things out there we can bring and raise funds for different causes,” he said.
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