Rolex
I first heard of the Lake of Stars Festival (LOS) in 2015 when 3 of my friends attended. I was just discovering the festival scene and had become a Bayimba regular. Nyege Nyege wasn’t even a thing yet. When they told me they were going, the FOMO shot through the roof and I quickly googled flight tickets. I didn’t have the money to begin with, but the flight ticket price killed any hope that had started to rise. Travel within Africa has come a long way and we still have a long way to go.
In 2018, I discovered there was a direct bus to Malawi and I started scheming again. A friend from Uganda was in Malawi for work so I asked them to buy me an early bird ticket. It was going down. The dates arrived and I hadn’t saved enough for transport so I sadly watched that edition pass me by with my early bird ticket.
This year, I’d made plans with a group of friends to road trip it there. But anyone who has been part of organising group plans should be aware of how it goes with these things. You’ll most likely die in your movie alone. This is why I’ll always be impressed with what we pulled off with the Great African Caravan. A bunch of strangers pulled off the ultimate Cross-Africa trip yet friends will fox you for a simple trip to Jinja.
Anyway, there I was in Zimbabwe at the start of the #MuwadoSADCtour when I got reminded that Lake of Stars was happening in a few weeks for the first time since 2018 when I’d failed to make it. How about that…I’d already done the longest part of the journey…my time to shine had come. After a challenging journey to Malawi, I was in Lilongwe and ready to attack the Lake.
I tried to get a media pass so I’d have full access for coverage but that didn’t come through. My new Malawian friend Sammie had been booked to play as one of the DJs so she didn’t need the early bird ticket she’d purchased. I bought it from her. Sammie and her best friend Rama are LOS veterans. They’ve been working with the festival for over 10 years and are proud ambassadors for it. But as staff, the festival experience is different because even though you get to enjoy the entirety of the experience, your main focus is on making all the other attendees and performers have the best time. Some of the behind-the-scenes stories were hilarious, especially the one about high winds and sandstorms that almost shut it down in 2018. They’d both since moved on to corporate jobs because festival life doesn’t pay the bills like that.
The next hurdle was transport and accommodation. I hadn’t carried a tent for the Muwado SADC tour because my tent had disappeared after my Explore Western Uganda experience. I looked at the prices for renting out a tent and decided $120 was too high for 3 days. I’d find a room near the venue. Getting a lift to the venue failed so I prepared myself for an adventure with Malawi public transport. Public transport has the same challenges in Africa so I’d be able to handle this. I went to drop my valuables at Story Club FM and learnt their team had left a few hours ago. My date with public transport was truly meant to be.
The station manager dropped me at the stage to Salima where I’d then get another taxi to Nkhotakota where the festival was happening this time. The venue changes so the different communities along the lake can benefit from the tourism opportunities it brings. Lake Malawi is arguably the country’s biggest tourist attraction and the festival is one of the reasons why.
The first half of the journey was uneventful. The matatu was overloaded, as it goes, and the roadblocks were plentiful with the necessary handshakes taking place. Like the Zimbabweans, these guys don’t want to know of the Wish and Ipsum so, after the minibuses, they use tiny cars like the Sienta for public transport. Those poor cars are packed with like 10 people, some in the boot. I wonder what Toyota thinks about all this.
I jumped out of the taxi at Salima and went to the Nkhotakota stage to wait for a connecting one. All that seemed available were the tiny cars which I wasn’t ready to risk. I struck up a conversation with another bald dude who seemed to be on the same mission as me. He was from Malawi but had been working in Dubai for over 10 years. We stood there for a couple of minutes trying to wave down a lift.
Eventually, my Dubai friend got a ride in the boot of a packed land cruiser with some exhibitors who were coming all the way from Blantyre. Eventually, a minibus came along and I was on my way too. It was a father-son team. The dad probably owned the vehicle because of how carefully he drove it. The son was playing conductor and was barely 12 by my estimates. Gotta start them early in the family business. We are never beating the child labour allegations as Africans.
This section of the road was horrible. There was construction work ongoing which meant the parts that weren’t full of potholes had very dusty diversions. I guess by choosing this venue, the festival organisers had decided to give us the full African off-road experience. The little boy needs to work on projecting his voice because we passed my stage when he failed to get his dad’s attention. I therefore had to walk back a km in the darkness of 8 pm. I got a boda from the stage to take me to the resort where the festival was happening but abandoned it when I saw the guy buying batteries for a torch he intended to use as a headlamp. I don’t play those games with my life anymore. A fully functional boda took me the rest of the dark dusty distance to the resort.
I arrived just in time to miss the official government speeches and dive straight into the action. I located the other staff from Story Club FM and left my bag in their car. From the boda ride and asking around, there was no nearby accommodation so I’d have to crash in the car with new colleagues. What was sleep anyway? I wrote the hardcore guide for Nyege Nyege so it was time to activate festival grind mode.
The festival venue itself, Fish Eagle Bay Lodge, was alright. We had the promised white sands and clear Lake waters. There were 3 stages. The main beach stage where most of the live performances were happening, the tree house Stage for the DJs, and then the Kweza stage which was more laidback and had a mix of artistic disciplines. The Kweza stage had shut down by the time I entered so I spent Friday night alternating between the beach stage and the tree house stage. I won’t lie to you that I remember any of the names of the performers but there was a dance crew of dudes that gave us a fruity performance of Lil Nas’s Montero. They danced other things but I remember that one in particular coz I remember thinking Uganda could never. Well, we could, because I’ve seen queer performers and attendees at Nyege, so I know our draconian policies are performative and politically motivated. But Malawi is inclusive like that.
The tree house DJs were alright but I felt like the amapiano overdominated. As an early adopter of the genre, it’s given me so much pleasure to see it spread all over the world. I’ve been to most of the shows in Uganda where we’ve had South African artists come to perform so my loyalty can’t be questioned. But I think I’m now at the point where I’m ready for a new wave of music. Every set of the night ultimately ended up with the same piano bangers that have been on the airwaves. I still danced because those drums be infectious, and even more so at a festival. Shout out to the thick Mc/Hype Lady for keeping the energy high and the dancers who led the crowd in all the TikTok dances for each song. I stopped cramming shuffles after university, plus my knees can’t handle these amapiano moves, but they are a joy to watch. The big letdown of the night was the absence of Titom & Yuppe of the Tswala Bam fame who failed to make it.
The key to longevity at festivals is pacing so I decided to look for a halfway point between the beach stage and the tree house stage where I could rest while enjoying the best of both worlds. As if the organisers had planned for me, there was an empty hut-like structure set up in the sand. I don’t know if it was supposed to be an exhibition spot but all it had was a black broom hanging from the roof. Spooky. I sat in there for a few minutes before deciding to run my own installation. I had the answers to the universe. I would beckon people over to the hut and tell them to ask me anything and I’d give them answers. I don’t know if all the people I talked to got the answers they wanted but it did bring about some great conversations about life, relationships, happiness, purpose, the state of Malawi, career… My plug at the end was of course join muwado and share your story with the world.
I finished the last set of the night, slept and woke up in time to catch the gorgeous sunrise over the lake. I joined some of the revellers in the warm waters of Lake Malawi to begin the day right. I don’t remember ever taking a proper dip in Lake Victoria because its texture and cleanliness don’t inspire confidence, but Lake Malawi was very welcoming. That was followed by a yoga session at the Kwezi stage to stretch the body and prepare for another day of hardcore parte. The Story Club FM Mobile station van had arrived and set up near the Kweza stage so I had breakfast with them while they set up for a day of interviews with performers. The next activity on the Kweza stage was a panel on building our future creatively. The usual challenges of the creative economy were discussed and I used the opportunity to plug our efforts at Muwado to improve the earning power of creatives. I then caught my friend’s set which opened the Ttee house stage for the day. DJ Wvlf, follow her on socials because she is going places.
I hadn’t slept sufficiently so I decided to add in some more hours so I would have energy for the evening and night activities. Sleeping in a car in the hot Malawi sun is just recreating a sauna so I can’t say that was the most restful sleep. That sunshine makes you understand why Malawi is the warm heart of Africa. The performances I remember from Saturday night are Natsibo Mutize from Zimbabwe who enthralled us with her soulful vocal range combined with the instrument she was playing – I didn’t get the name, and Sho Madjozi who brought the house down with her energetic performance. I love that woman.
The fatigue from the journey to Malawi and the one to the festival kicked in and I spent most of that night fighting off sleep while trying to enjoy the DJ performances. The last set was from a long-term partner in the Ugandan innovation space, Raymond Besiga, who recently quit his startup and is trying out DJing as he figures out what to do next with his life. You can imagine my joy at finding another Ugandan I knew at the festival. And while we are on the subject of Uganda, the festival is the only place in Malawi where I found rolex. Granted they consider it a wrap, but my heart and stomach were full. Actually, chapati is not as commonplace here but I was told you can find it in Northern Malawi which is close to Tanzania. These guys are missing out. Any East African looking for a market to dominate, there’s a free business idea.
Sunday started with the usual dip in the lake. I spent most of the day hanging out with the Story FM crew. I was tapping into energy reserves at this point so I floated between the stages hanging out with festival friends, taking in the beauty of the Lake, and watching those who still had energy for dancing. The only act I remember from the day was a silent disco at the Kweza stage. I didn’t have the energy to dance so I kept on switching between DJs while watching the crowd dancing to the different sets. Silent disco is amusing like that if you are spectating because why is that guy pulling deadly Lingala moves while their neighbour is jumping up and down like they are at a rave. We were interrupted for a bit to allow a comedian who had arrived late and missed the comedy slot to do his set. He had dreads and his act was about how they attract white women and other jokes along those lines. It didn’t go well and I was relieved for him and the audience when it was done.
The tree house stage closed the night with more sets heavy on the piano and, finally, we shut down the festival. After a final dip in the lake, I set off for Lilongwe, this time more comfortably with a ride from the Story Club FM crew. Lake of Stars, hopefully, we’ll meet again but under better accommodation conditions because I’m done with hardcore mode. I’m too old it and I need to take better care of my body.
Did it live up to expectations, not really. The venue was alright and beautiful but not the most convenient. Apparently, this was one of the furthest venues it’d been held at which means folks from the southern regions may not have been motivated to make the journey. Considering how much of a tourist pull the festival and lake are, the road works could have been expedited for a better experience for people going there. The crowd was decent but not as big as expected. The curation of the acts didn’t seem like extensive thought was put into steadily building the tempo. The few performers I talked to also had issues with communication with times being switched up with no alerts. But no festival is perfect and even if this was the 20th edition, it was happening after a 5 year break and with most of the old team absent so I understand the challenges involved. A big part of festival enjoyments going in is the right attitude and I was focused on enjoying, which I did.
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