Lake of Stars

Last weekend, I traveled south with six other Engineers Without Borders volunteers. We were headed for Lake of Stars - Malawi's biggest music festival. The festival was started four years ago by a British man who volunteered in Malawi and decided to create a music festival. The festival is always held on the shores of Lake Malawi, and this year the venue was Mangochi. Mangochi is very (very) hot, and very (very) beautiful. The white sands are scattered with palm trees and baobab trees. The lake offers a very welcome opportunity for a swim to cool off from the heat.

The festival itself seems to be a brilliant idea (I'd love to hear other's opinions). Lake of Stars mixes Malawian artists (Lucias Banda, The Black Missionaries, Tay Grin Third Eye, and D One, amongst many others) with European artists (Sway, and The Maccabes). There was also a pretty fantastic acrobatic group from Lilongwe. The crowd was pretty mixed. There were Malawians, lots of volunteers from different places in Malawi (and Zambia I think), and there were travelers who came from England and other places in Europe just for the festival. Personally, I like to see more of this kind of thing happening in
Africa. It seemed to be a positive experience for everyone involved. It brought tourists into the country. It supported local businesses.... and I think raised a little money for a local charity.

We had a fantastic few days at the festival. I enjoyed all of the music. I finally got to see the Black Missionaries (I've heard them many, many times - especially traveling around Lilongwe on minibuses). I also heard Third Eye and D One for the first time. And, of course there was quite a bit of dancing, and some frisbee on the beach. How can you top that?

For pictures that are better than mine (and some more background if you're interested) check out the news stories below.

BBC news story

Guardian news story