Live at Kumbali 2026
Project Focus
Sponsorship, Branding & Design, Event Support, Marketing, Publicity, Content Strategy
Kumbali Country Lodge & Standard Bank
Music Event
On 24 October 2026, Kumbali Castle became the place Lilongwe went to sing. Across one night and two stages, LIVE at Kumbali moved from intimate acoustic sets in the early evening to a Bien headline set the crowd sang back word for word. It was KETASE Group's second year in a row on the festival, and our role reached well past the comms: we secured its sponsors, designed its look, supported the team on the night and told its story, from the first teaser to the last highlight reel.
A castle, a live band and one night of music
LIVE at Kumbali promises something Malawi's events calendar rarely offers: every artist backed by a full live band, in the grounds of a castle on the edge of Lilongwe. 2026 was the festival's fourth edition and our second year in a row behind it. This time the brief was bigger than selling tickets. We helped build the night itself, from the partners who backed it to the look of every screen and sign, with our team on hand to support on the day, and we had to make people feel it before they arrived.
Selling a feeling, not a line-up
We built the campaign around how the night would feel rather than who was on the poster. Over 17 weeks, artists filmed to a shared series of prompts, so fans heard from the musicians in their own words. The whole campaign came back to one simple question: where should you be this October? And the piece that travelled furthest was also the simplest: Bien, speaking straight to Malawi.
The work behind the night
Our second year with LIVE at Kumbali started long before the first post went out. We led sponsorship, shaping the partnership offer, bringing brands on board and giving each one a place in the night that felt like part of the experience rather than an interruption to it. Our design team built the 2026 identity and carried it through everything a guest would see, from the first poster to the stage screens and signage across the castle grounds. And on 24 October our team was on the ground in support of the organisers, from the first acoustic note on the Summerhouse Stage to Bien's final song.
From a whisper to a roar
For the first time, the night ran across two stages. On the Summerhouse Stage, Yaankho, Isabel King and Sangwani played an acoustic soundtrack as guests arrived and settled in. On the Main Stage, Sagonjah & Tadala eased the crowd in, Maggie Kadrum's jazz slowed the pulse, and Tamba Africa's acrobats, Beni and Ingoma dancers pulled people to their feet. Praise Umali took the stage with his guitar, and Driemo kept the energy climbing. We shaped the night as one rising arc, from a whisper to a roar, and told it that way from the first teaser onwards.
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Bien, and a city singing back
When Bien walked out, the cheers said as much about the reach of Sauti Sol's music across Africa as about the man himself. He gave the crowd the songs they came for, Suzanna, Melanin, Kuliko Jana and Extravaganza, then made room for his solo chapter with I'll Be Okay, Extra and Finale. Partway into Short n Sweet he stopped, at what one fan later described as an overwhelming reaction from the crowd. He sang the love song he wrote for his wife before he proposed, and for days afterwards fans were in the comments trying to name it. It was the moment the whole campaign had been building towards.
You just had to be there
The morning after, Standard Bank answered everyone asking how the night went in four words: you just had to be there. The people who were there spent the next two weeks proving it. Creators cut their own recaps, and the comments under them read like reviews. One guest called it one of the best things they had experienced all year. Under another recap, fans were already naming next year's headliner. Across the campaign, the festival's own pages reached 1.24 million views, more than four times 2025, and interactions across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok grew 722.4%, from 9,343 to 76,838.
Results
- digital views across the campaign
- 2.38M
- acts across two stages
- 11
- views on the festival's own pages vs 2025
- 4.3x
- more interactions on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok vs 2025
- 722.4%
For the Love of Music.