KARACHI: A riot of colour and the foot-tapping beat of the dhol greeted lovers of music as the first I Am Karachi Music Festival began at the Arts Council on Saturday evening with Lok Mela organised in collaboration with Lok Virsa.

The show was scheduled to start at 6pm. But groups of dancers and musicians representing different parts of Pakistan — Sindh, Punjab, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan — spread in three spaces of the council played music and danced their hearts out, engaging early on the men, women and children that had come to be part of the festival.

The main event was to kick off in the open-air Z. A. Bukhari auditorium. The organisers waited for Sindh Minister for Culture Syed Sardar Ali Shah for more than half an hour and then went on with proceedings. Amin Hashwani, Dr Fouzia Saeed and Ahmed Shah made short speeches; and moments after the last speech was delivered the minister came, who was then requested to say a few words. He did.

The show started off with a heartwarming song and dance sequence from Gilgit-Baltistan. Naushad Ali Hunzai sang a song accompanied by a nice little group of dancers who presented a slice of the culture of their beautiful land through their art. The second piece representing the same region was the sword dance performed by Sarfaraz.

Next came the highlight of the show: dance from Kailash. A group of elegantly dressed girls danced to a lovely traditional composition. Their movement was marked by the formations they were making in short time periods, especially the move where some of them moved in concentric circles. It was pretty special. It transported the audience — comprising a section that remained vociferous throughout the programme cheering every performer — into a different, non-urban, non-contemporary setting. When the girls finished their stint on stage, Dr Fouzia told the attendees that save for one or two of them, it was for the first time that the Kailash artists were visiting Karachi.

They were followed by musicians belonging to Punjab. First up was Bushra Marvi, who sang the famous ‘Mahi yaar di gharoli’. She needs to do more riyaz because on a couple of occasions she failed to go with the beat.

Hanif from Multan followed her, after which Fazal Jutt presented the dastaan of Chhalla.

Ibrahim Parwana sang two catchy Balochi songs, the second one being ‘Daney pe dana’. The audience enjoyed it to the hilt.

Performers from Sindh rounded off the show. Bagh Chand from Sanghar sang a known folk number. He seems to have the kind of talent that can take him places.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2017