{"id":69197,"date":"2018-09-10T12:07:43","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T10:07:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=69197"},"modified":"2018-09-10T12:07:45","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T10:07:45","slug":"one-venue-for-blantyre-arts-festival-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2018\/09\/10\/one-venue-for-blantyre-arts-festival-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"One venue for Blantyre Arts Festival this year"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sam Banda Jnr:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
COLLABO\u2014Princess performs with Makatumbe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Blantyre Arts Festival (Baf) Executive Director Thom Chibambo has said the festival is on and ready to give people a treat once again this year.<\/p>\n

Chibambo said Sunday when asked as to whether the festival is on this year having been silent the past two months with nothing on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe festival is on without fail and we have been working very hard to put things together. The lineup is ready,\u201d<\/em> Chibambo said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He said that, unlike the previous outing where the festival was held at two venues \u2013 Blantyre Cultural Centre (BCC) and Jacaranda Cultural Centre (BCC)\u2014this year the festival will take place at BCC only.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year it\u2019s only one venue and let me also say it here that we are more than ready,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The festival will be held from October 5 to 7.<\/p>\n

The other festival organisers \u2013Lake of Stars<\/a> and Sand Music<\/a>\u2014have already come out and announced the lineup of their artists this year.<\/p>\n

But Baf has been silent on its lineup forcing some people to start doubting whether the festival would take place this year.<\/p>\n

The festival started on a high note early this year when it embarked on projects such as Fit For Life where it was training youth in different skills.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaf is creating a platform for the youth to use their skills to bring a difference in country,\u201d<\/em> Chibambo said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He said the country has raw untapped talent which needs to be unearthed for the benefit of the society.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaf 2018 will showcase various products from Fit-For- Life Youth Creative training Programme so that Malawians are able to see and be able to appreciate the fruits of the training programme,\u201d<\/em> Chibambo said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile the festival organisers have released some of the names of the artists set to perform at this year\u2019s platform and they include reggae group Black Missionaries and Anthony Makondetsa and gospel star Ethel Kamwendo Banda.<\/p>\n

Makatumbe<\/a> from Germany which will also perform at Lake of Stars Festival is also expected to perform at Baf.<\/p>\n

Kasama Arts from Zambia, Klecks Theatre from Germany, ethnomusician Waliko Makhala, Agorosso and poets Raphael Sitima, Luckier Chikopa and Sylvester Kalizang\u2019oma are some of the acts making the list this year.<\/p>\n

Despite coming out, the festival however, still has a long way to put its house in order as it seems it is losing its steam.<\/p>\n

The festival has shown potential over the years and attract renowned acts such as Zimbabwe\u2019s Oliver Mtukudzi and Mali\u2019s Salif Keita but in recent years, it has failed to attracted top international artists.<\/p>\n

Chibambo has attributed this to lack of adequate funding.<\/p>\n

He said this year they are also running on a smaller budget.<\/p>\n

During this year\u2019s festival, the will also be an exhibition led by visual artist Ellis Singano.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Sam Banda Jnr: Blantyre Arts Festival (Baf) Executive Director Thom Chibambo has said the festival is on and ready to give people a treat once again this year. Chibambo said Sunday when asked as to whether the festival is on this year having been silent the past two months with nothing on the ground. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69197"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69197\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69198,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69197\/revisions\/69198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}