By Sam Banda Jnr & Taonga Sabola:
Sand Music Festival Director Soldier Lucius Banda said Tuesday they were in need of more support to perfectly execute this year’s event to be held at Kambiri Beach Resort in Salima from September 30 to October 2.
Lucius said that their budget for this year is K106 million and that they were targeting over 35 artists locally and six international acts.
“We are grateful to the companies that have come forth. We have so many activities and apart from music, we are looking at boxing, aerobics and tea party,” Lucius said.
Some of the players that have pumped money towards this year’s festival include Salima Sugar Company, Banja La Mtsogolo, FDH Bank and Castel Malawi.
Lucius said they were looking at changing people’s mindset over Sand Music Festival.
“People still mistake Sand Music Festival for a concert or one night show. This is a festival that involves more acts and we want people to have an experience, this is not a one man show, that is why we want people to be there all the three days,” he said.
Lucius said they will always strive to give a platform to different artists.
“We have had people telling us, they don’t want such and such an artist for reasons best known to themselves but a festival accommodates different artists,” he said.
Meanwhile, the festival on Monday unveiled Tanzanian star Harmonize as the first international headliner during a press briefing held in Lilongwe.
“We have more international and local acts but we have international and local headliners and so, Harmonize is the first international headliner we have unveiled. We will announce the other in the next four to five days,” Lucius said.
Harmonize real name Rajab Abdul Kahali is a music entrepreneur, who is referred to as Konde Boy which stems from his Makonde heritage.
The artist goes by other names such as Jeshi, Tembo, Mbunge, Konde-Mabeyo and recently Bakhresa borrowed from one of Tanzanian billionaire Said Salim Bakhresa.
Harmonize, who in 2017 earned praise from MTV Base and included him in their African edition of ‘Ones to Watch’ will be the second Tanzanian artist to perform at Sand Music Festival following in the footsteps of Diamond Platnumz, who starred at the event two years ago.
The festival recently also unveiled Yo Maps from Zambia.
