ISLAMABAD: The annual Dawn’s All About Lifestyles fair opened at Pak-China Friendship Centre on Saturday, combining consumer based products and entertainment.

The two-day event presented stalls for residents of the twin cities from 70 to 80 major brands that have participated in the event for years.

With delicious food from popular local restaurants and the famous German Shepherd dog show, which saw 100 entries this time, it was an escape from the city’s noise.

“Lifestyles is a good example of what consumer based-fairs are like. The event calls upon the people to attend with stalls that are bound to please like every year,” one of the organizers said.

“The Lifestyles event is always an interesting attraction. The food has gotten so much better in the last four and five years,” said Saira Khan, who bought apparel for her children.

The show offers more than home items such as furniture, handicrafts, and decoration products, besides apparel.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa pavilion was a crowd puller as always, as stall holders drew attention to the tourist attractions, clothing from the province and emphasised preservation of wildlife.

Zahid Ali and his five brothers have all been carving wooden and metal products since they were in school.

“This has been the family business for a few generations in Peshawar. This is the first time we have participated in Dawn Lifestyles and the experience is good so far,” Mr Ali said, standing behind the stall of wooden trucks and animals.

A particular attraction was Bilal Khan’s stall of Peshawari green tea.

“Of course it’s special. We boil it in the Samawar, a metal pot meant particularly to make green tea,” the 22-year-old owner, who has been participating in the Lifestyles event for several years now, said.

The visitors felt that the event was not marketed as much last year. Hafiz Amir said that he would not have known about the event if his company had not participated in the fair.

“We could not find out about the event online and this time the streamers were also missing on Kashmir Highway,” Zunaira Riaz said.

But organisers maintained that while Saturdays were a bit slow, Sundays drew huge crowds.

Nonetheless, good food helped to make Saturday an enjoyable day, with nearly 20 local restaurants offering mouth watering delights.

Sunday’s special attraction will be the all breeds dog show.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2019