KARACHI: The roving lasers beckoned as the music merged with heartbeats and feet tapped automatically at the two-day I am Karachi Music Festival, organised by the Mad School and music band Fuzon, kicked off at Port Grand on Saturday.

The festival on its inaugural day saw a mixed crowd with varied tastes in music. On one side was the heavy metal music stage and on the other far end of the area was the other stage where Qawwal Najmuddin Saifuddin & Brothers and other folk singers balanced out the equation. But the dholak, tabla, flutes and acoustic guitar were not overshadowed by the electric guitars, keyboards, drums, etc, as when enjoying the music on one side one could not hear the other and vice-versa.

And when bored from both kinds of the music, one could always head out to the food street.

The bands and singers including Janoobi Khargosh, Jasir Abro, Opus, Natasha Ejaz, Ali Suhail, Alicia Dias, Chand Tara Orchestra, Aamir Zaki, Mauj, Sounds of Kolachi and last but not least Shehzad Roy played well into the night. Renditions of classics like ‘Kinna sohna tenu rab ne banaya’ and folk songs such as ‘Lathey di chadar’ brought tears to a grandfather’s eyes as his granddaughter made a video of the performers taking occasional selfies with them in the background. A baby slept peacefully over his mother’s shoulder as heavy metal music played on. “The new generation is already in tune for such noise,” she laughingly commented.

The paths between the stages was decorated with many posters of current and yesteryear music legends. The ones still pulling crowds were fine but it would have been helpful had the organisers also provided their names with their pictures. Yes, we all now Abida Parveen and the late Mehdi Hassan but few youngsters could put a name to the pictures of Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and Roshan Ara Begum.

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2015

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