Music Festivals also need Strategic Plans

It is clear that apart from a few if none, most of the music festivals taking place in the country suffer from a haphazard preparation and this is the more reason while some have been around longer others disappeared as quickly as they were done.

One typical example of this lack of planning is from the recent announcements from Nyasa Music Festival. The organisers of the music festival organised the inaugural three-day in April this year at Kamuzu Stadium. Commentators warned the organisers that the venue was not ideal but they insisted it was the best because having looked around they settled for Kamuzu Stadium because it was more secure.

The event having flopped, the organisers who had announced that this will be an annual fixture decided to organise a second Nyasa Music Festival within the year in order to clear the fact that it was initially badly planned and therefore bore no expected results.

They promised to hold the festival in October. However last Sunday the Nation on Sunday reported that the event has been shifted to next year. There are two clear indications in this announcement clearly shows that this whole thing is never planned. Firstly, they wait until October 27, which is already at the expiry of the month that the festival was to take place, to announce that it won’t take place. As if this is not failure enough on their part, they give one of the flimsiest ideas ever heard.

They said since a number of performers will come from South Africa, they weren’t sure of their safety considering the xenophobic induced violence that erupted in South Africa. Many questions as to who will hurt them etc. leaves a lot of holes in this excuse.

This is what brings me to a point where I can safely say this was all ill planned. And it is so because these events are not taken seriously and this is the reason most of the organisers will just wake up one morning and say let’s have a festival.

Without strategic planning which is an essential process in preparing to carry out any mission, the festival had already failed before it happened. Festival organisers need to realise that without an effective strategic planning process there won’t be a framework that will guide them on what decisions to make on how to allocate organizational resources, address challenges and take advantage of opportunities that arise along the way.

This is why back in 2012 alone we had several festivals happening and they included: ‘Macfest’, ‘Mwezi Wawala’, ‘Blantyre Arts’, ‘Sand Music’, ‘Moonrock’ and one initiated by COSOMA. But as you will appreciate while a couple are still happening the rest died a natural death and, in their place, numerous ones have come.

The clear mistake is thinking that organising a festival is merely inviting artists. The botched-up October festival in question for example was to be headlined by 10 international acts fused by local artists. South Africa-based Malawian producer and composer Gemini Major was also set to be part of the cast.

The rest of the information as regards its set up was scanty because it was obviously always coming off the head. Festivals should be treated as projects and as such ought to have a plan in place. For those festivals that plan to continuously be taking place for more years, developing a five-year-long strategic plan for example would be ideal. In that case you would be having organisers of Nyasa Music Festival making kneejerk decisions like the ones exhibited this time round. As they say, if we fail to plan, we plan to fail …