City of Stars

This past weekend was City of Stars, an amazing music festival that happens annually in Malawi.  This is the first year for it to be held in the City, as in previous years it was Lake of Stars and was held at the lake along the beach.  Based on the reaction of people who have been previous years, the beach is better!  However, it was an awesome event and we had a lot of fun!

It was held at a local hotel, the Sanctuary Lodge, and had 2 stages set up with multiple bars, food stands, and craft stands in between.  We went on Friday night, and then again for the day and evening on Saturday.  Umoja Crafts was given a table, and I spent most of Saturday helping out at the booth to give the other ladies breaks.

There were some really great bands, a few mediocre ones, and one or two garage bands that were so bad that it was odd to have them there!  But my overall favourites were a Kenyan band called Sauti Sol, and a Norwegian band named Svermere.  Oh my word – Svermere!  I was helping at the Umoja booth and heard the sounds of a fiddle being tuned – by the third or fourth note, I turned to the ladies and said that I needed to go and watch this band!  They are clearly all classically trained musicians, by their varied style and the way they handle their instruments, and their music is phenomenal!  I was so excited about them, and even got to sell the fiddler and his girlfriend an Umoja coaster set later on in the day!  Sauti Sol was more of a pop band and one of the songs for their new CD (out next year) had great lyrics that I just loved – I was so disappointed that I couldn’t immediately purchase that CD!

Another artist that I enjoyed being able to hear was Tresor, a poet who lives in the refugee camp and has taken courses through JC-HEM.  His powerful words were well-received by the crowd, and his back-up music fit with his words perfectly.  You can read one of his poems here.

Anyhow, I definitely recommend looking up these bands and having a listen!


The following videos are one of Svermere that I took at the concert, and a music video by Sauti Sol... hope it gives you a taste of their style, however badly it may have been recorded on my shaking phone!