Saturday is here and we are working on bits and pieces but also taking the chance to rest up before next week. It's going to be a big week - Nick, Marian, Helena (the art direction / site design team) are going down to Senga Bay tomorrow and staying there until the festival starts. Lauren and Laura are staying in Lilongwe a for a few more days and welcoming the rest of the UK team and the UK headlining arists to Malawi.
Will and Fran arrived from the UK on Wednesday and we've had a good few days catching up. We had a lovely meal out for Fran's birthday at Claud's restaurant in Lilongwe - a fantastic place which is basically fairy light nirvana. The food (and the coffee!) is also top notch and there was live music, which ended up being a private gig for us since we were the very last people to leave. The band were playing amazing, inventive instruments (there was a recycled wheel, a cardboard box and a self made guitar-style instrument) - we'll post the name of the band once we've found the paper we scrawled it on! If you are in Lilongwe it's worth checking out Claud's - and every Thursday night has live music and food and drink promotions.
On Thursday we had a press conference with the Malawian media at the Sunbird Capital hotel in Lilongwe. It was very well attended - with representatives from The Nation, The Daily Times, The Guardian, Zodiac, Capital Radio, Joy FM, MBC and TV Malawi. We're trying to gather soundfiles from the radio interviews which took place with Mr Harry Gibbs and Lauren and Laura.
Yesterday we went back to the site again to check the progress of the build. Things seem to be going swimmingly - the main stage is very nearly there and the plans for the second music area (The Lucky Bean bar) have evolved again to be even more spectacular. It should be a great place to be - nice big bar, lots of shady trees to dance under and a massive staircase down to the beach (so we can have a split-level dancefloor). By the way it is really HOT here now - so pack your sun accessories: sunglasses, hats (the more eclectic and ridiculous the better), paper parasols to keep the midday sun off, picnic rugs and beach mats so you can sit (the sun bakes the sand and it also gets hot!).
We had a glorious sing-song in the back of Harry's pick up truck last night (basically howling at the moon and the stars) as we rode back from Senga Bay to Lilongwe. We managed to catch a gig at Harry's Bar and Umunthu Theatre - Born Afrikan supported by some other reggae bands. It was great bouncy fun, with a medium-sized but very committed crowd. There is a sense of people here saving themselves for next week though - when, of course, LOS 2008 is going to land in all its glory. The lineup is now basically finalised so we'll publish some stage times soon, but be warned these may be subject to change over the next week!
We really hope this is going to be the best year EVER!
Laura, Lauren, Nick and Helena. xx
Lake of Stars International Music Festival
http://www.lakeofstars.org
proud to be supporting the Microloan Foundation
http://www.microloanfoundation.org.uk/
