By Jarson Malowa:
There was excitement, fun and laughter in Zomba over the weekend as art lovers got a dosage of poetry, music, dance, drama and visual arts at the fourth edition of Zomba City Festival.
The three-day festival, led by Zomba Arts Platform, started on Friday and ended on Sunday.
In its drive to help in keeping the old capital city clean and also conserve the environment, the festival started with a clean-up exercise which attracted European Union Ambassador to Malawi Rune Skinnebach.
The clean-up exercise was followed by a parade by Malawi Defence Force officers.
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The parade attracted people and acted as an awareness campaign to invite people to patronise the festival.
The launch of the festival on Friday took place at the University of Malawi, the Great Hall to be precise, which was one of five venues.
Youth Net and Counselling (Yoneco) dance troupe opened the dance floor, serving traditional dances, before performances from Isabel King, DTK Afro Ovina and renowned poet Q Malewezi.
The artists served their artistry in the presence of top officials, including Deputy Minister of Local Government, Unity and Culture Owen Chomanika, Skinnebach and Zomba Deputy Mayor Munilla Bakali.
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Q Malewezi said he was happy to star at Zomba City Festival and share the stage with other acts.
“The platform gave me another chance to give people a sample of my work. This time, I chose three or four softer poems that I don’t usually recite. I wanted to focus more on the art of writing,” the Lilongwe-based poet said.
The poet recited poems such as ‘People’ and a new poem in the form of a letter from a writer to the sky and the sky back to the earth and another poem titled ‘When a Black Man Fails’.
Chomanika said Malawi is making progress in as far as growing the arts industry is concerned.
“We are happy that we have made progress with the National Arts and Heritage Council Draft Bill, which will be taken to Parliament soon. This will pave the way for the establishment of a council that will help sanitise the sector,” he said.
Skinnebach said festivals are essential for offering entertainment and also giving a platform to creatives to showcase their work.
The festival’s director Laura Schuerwegen said during the opening ceremony that the festival has made strides since its inception.
“Obviously an increased cost and more considerations need to be made. It also means that our own team grows. We now have a core team of 28 people and a larger team of 75, but every year it is more important to be able to deliver,” she said.
Laura said next year they will be looking into alternative accommodation solutions as they had reached accommodation capacity within Zomba this year.
“The rise in numbers of people attending this festival means we have to make sure that everyone is safe even with increased numbers of visitors. As such, this year we had more private security personnel and more police officers,” she said.
The second day of the festival brought in more performances and some of the acts that starred included Must Band, Yoneco Cultural Troupe, Rwanda Traditional Dance, Jacaranda Cultural Troupe, Kanthunkhama Theatre from Unima, Hope Masike and Bexter MW.
The climax of the festival on Saturday was when Minister of Tourism Vera Kamtukule stormed one of the venues.
Kamtukule, who patronised the festival fresh from the Takulandirani Malawi Tourism Expo in Lilongwe, said Malawians in general, organisers and people in the tourism sector need to look at how they can attract tourists.
