Tammy Clare Mbendera

Tammy Clare Mbendera is an artist from Malawi. Currently, she is the founder of The Festival Institute, which promotes skills enhancement and job creation in the Arts in Africa. She is also the Station Manager/Executive Producer for Malawi's story club FM, a first-of-its-kind broadcasting platform for the Malawian creative industry. Tammy is a former core business services associate with Global Assurance Firm, EY (formerly Ernst & Young). She possesses a unique combination of technical and creative skills in Business and Arts Management, as well as experience in Human Resource Management.

With a robust 20 years of experience in service industries, ranging from catering and hospitality, HR management and communications, she has been everything from a former chef at the prestigious Nottingham University, to radio DJ at Capital Radio Malawi, eventually finding her creative niche as project manager and company secretary for Lake of Stars Festival between 2008 and 2015. Notably, Tammy was festival coordinator for Africa's most lauded MTN Bushfire Festival, which hosts 30 000 people for over three days annually, from 2016 to 2020. She was also the founding coordinator for MTN Bushfire’s subsidiary artisanal sister-festival, Standard Bank Luju Food and Lifestyle Festival, both, in Malkerns, eSwatini. During her tenure in eSwatini, she also served as tour coordinator for Igoda Southern African Music Festivals Circuit, which toured artists such as Asa (NG) Hugh Masekela (SA) Muete (Ger) Salif Keita and Blitz theAmbassador, to name a few. She is an expert brands and experiential curator and part time writer.

 The Festival Institute aims to provide aspiring creative practitioners with accredited, transferrable professional skills for a sustainable creative industry. Currently in their pilot training programme, in conjunction with Music Crossroads Malawi, the Festival Institute is working with a team of 12 students from Malawi and Mozambique in producing the Pakhonde Ethno Music Festival billed for May of 2022.