Lake of Stars Festival

My love of music festivals has remained with me since I first attended Download Festival in England in 2003. Perhaps not long after this time I remember reading about a festival called The Lake of Stars which was held in Malawi. It sounded amazing and I immediately wanted to go. Over the years though I completely forgot about it, until I arrived into Malawi in August and heard people talking about the festival and I knew it should not be missed!

I'd only been able to get a visa for Malawi for four weeks, which took me up to a couple of weeks before the festival. So at the first opportunity I extended my visa and bought myself a ticket. Bands from all over the world came to play there. Through music played in the clubs and bars and sounded out onto the streets as I travelled through Malawi, I'd got to know some of the bands from within Africa who would be playing. My excitement further grew when I discovered a band called Foals, who are originally from Oxford, would also be playing. I'd seen part of one of their gigs when I was living there but a friend I'd gone with hadn't been well and so I'd had to miss most of their set.

The festival did not disappoint! There was no end of good music and I even managed to get a mosh pit going when Foals played, which was so much fun. Although I'd gone to the festival alone and did miss my regular festival buddies, I bumped into a few of the people I'd met previously on my travels and so had happy people to dance with.

I also found large pots which could be climbed up and sat in, chefs in full chef outfits, plenty of sunshine and also at night time the lake full of 'stars', otherwise know as lights from fishermen's boats used to attracts the fish they wanted to catch in their nets.