Sand Music Festival announces 2020 dates
Organisers of the Sand Music Festival have announced that next year’s festival will be held from October 30 to November 1 2020.
This was announced by Impakt Events Director, Soldier Lucius Banda, on Sunday at the end of this year’s three-day festival held at Kabumba Hotel in Salima District.
Lucius said next year they will be celebrating their 10th anniversary. He said they would also try to bring another top artist targeting United States of America (USA).
He, however, could not say whether the festival will take place at the same venue or it will move to another venue.
“Our festival comes month-end of October but this year it was not possible because we normally target people when they have money. This is why we shifted it to the first week of November this year. But next year, we have it on October 30, 31 and November 1 2020. We just want to ask people to continue supporting us,” he said.
The musician, who also performed on the day to officially mark the end of the festival admitted that they experienced challenges this year due to many factors.
“We apologise for some of the challenges experienced this year. I would like to thank God for being with us throughout the festival and Malawians for patronising the festival and also all those who stayed on until the last day,” he said.
He said this year has been difficult for many players because of the political situation which has affected businesses.
The country has since May 21 2019 tripartite elections experienced demonstrations organised by Human Rights Defenders Coalition aimed at forcing Malawi Electoral Commission Chairperson, Jane Ansah, to resign for allegedly failing to manage election results.
“Businesses have been disturbed and we were not spared hence experiencing some of the challenges but we apologise for that. Being at a new venue was also like starting from scratch but everything worked,” Lucius said.
He also said that Malawians need not to attach political issues to issues such as festivals which are for the good of the nation.
“Politics should not be part of festivals, we may disagree on this but when it comes to festivals which are part of promoting the country then we need to unite to raise our Malawi,” Lucius said.
He then hailed Minister of Sports, Youth and Culture, Francis Phiso, for patronising the festival.
“The minister was with us and apart from opening the festival on Friday, he stayed on until the following day. We also had officials from the Department of Tourism, who also assisted us greatly and so we can only succeed if we work together,” Lucius said.
On the performances during the festival, Lucius said he was impressed with Botswana’s Vee Mampeezy and Raphael from Germany.
Vee Mampeezy, real name Odirile Vee Sento, was energetic throughout his performance backed by two of his dancers.
The artist took people on a journey of his music and dropped songs such as ‘Dumalana’ which he did with Dr Tawanda and ‘Dololo’.
“I would like to thank people for the support. It was really nice to perform at Sand Music Festival,” Vee Mampeezy said.
On King Sounds, who was the headliner, Lucius, said he tried but he is old.
“We expected much from him but people should understand that he is now old. He tried and reminded people of the past exploits,” he said.
