Exhibitors and performers dissatisfied with the music and arts festival

The Namibia Music and Arts Festival held at Walvis Bay over the Easter weekend was cancelled by the police on Saturday evening, according to some performers and vendors.

The festival was scheduled to take place from Thursday to Saturday under the theme: ‘Supporting homegrown talent’.

The police shut the festival down after organisers reportedly didn’t have the necessary paperwork and licences, including a liquor licence, to stage the event.

Music artist ML was scheduled to perform on Sunday night.

“The unfortunate thing is that we had to find out on our own that they closed the show,” says ML, who expressed dissatisfaction with the organiser’s lack of communication.

“They uploaded my performance in the morning, and we invested time getting ready, including rehearsals, but they didn’t let us know they can’t host the show any longer. We only heard reports, and when we drove to the event, we discovered that everything had been torn down,” says ML.

Vendor Emily Kalenga of Emy’s Kitchen says she made a loss at the festival.

“The first day barely saw good sales because the set-up took so long. The entire situation was chaotic, and the event organisers didn’t do their best,” says Kalenga.

The electricity kept tripping, which made it challenging to serve customers warm food, she says.

The festival went well for Julia Shilomboleni of the Feelingz Nation despite being forced to close earlier, she says.

“We had a successful day at the event, so I’d like to thank the organisers for letting us have a booth there,” says Shilomboleni.

Festival organiser Tessaroniki Hamalwa says municipal officials stopped the event despite them having the required paperwork.

“Because they were dissatisfied with how the police concluded the exhibition, the vendors and sponsors decided to leave. We apologised to the public and cancelled the event after informing the audience that the performance was apparently illegal and could not take place at the location,” Hamalwa says.

“We are looking forward to dealing with the affected artists and businesses quickly. They will be our first focus.”