LAHORE: The Lahore Arts Council (LAS) will hold festivals of ghazal, theatre and folk music. Besides holding workshops, the LAS will revive its street theatre activities called ‘Alhamra on Wheels’, LAS Executive Director Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi told Dawn on Sunday.

The ghazal festival will be on Jan 4 and 5, the theatre festival from Jan 7 to 16 and the folk music festival on Jan 20 and 21.

Mr Zulfi said that ghazal had got restricted to drawing rooms lately. For the revival of ghazal singing, which has a strong tradition in the subcontinent, the LAC was holding this festival. Similarly, for the revival of parallel theatre, the council was holding the 11-day theatre festival. Also, folk music had deep roots in this region and had a strong tradition. That’s why the council wanted to hold a grand folk music festival, he added.

The ghazal festival will feature singers, such as Ghulam Abbas, Hamid Ali Khan, Sara Raza, Fareeha Pervaiz, Saima Jahan, Saira Naseem, Hina Nasrullah and Amanat Ali. The theatre festival will feature theatrical productions by establishing theatre groups, such as Ajoka, Mass Theater, Naurattan Theater, Ghayyur Theater, Sufi Tabassum Academy and a few others. The folk music festival will feature Attaullah Khan Esakhailvi on the first day of the festival and Arif Lohar on the second day.

Zulfi said that Alhamra would also hold workshops in the near future each workshop would be a 15-day long. The first workshop on classical music would be conducted by Ustad Shafqart Ali Khan, followed by one on ghazal to be conducted by Hamid Ali Khan and Tarranum Naz. The third workshop would be on calligraphy. All these workshops would be paid ones.

The LAC would also establish a craft bazaar at Alhamra Cultural Complex, Qaddafi Stadium, featuring traditional pottery, jewellery, embroidery, woodwork, lacer work, bone carving and paper mache. Mr Zulfi said Alhamra was also reviving its ‘Alhamra on Wheels’ street theatre project, which had been suspended owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

Under the project, Mr Zulfi said, theatrical traditions would be performed in markets, bazaars and in different areas of the city to revive the tradition of street theatre.

Published in Dawn, December 27th, 2021