KARACHI: The Eat Festival, formerly Karachi Eat, the city’s highly anticipated and well loved food and music festival, is all set to return for its 11th year from January 12 to Jan 14.

According to a press release issued here on Wednesday, the three-day festival will be held at the Beach Park in Clifton. It promises an unforgettable experience for the city’s food enthusiasts and music lovers. Like every year, a wide variety of food stalls serving a diverse range of sweet and savoury culinary delights, as well as an exciting evening line-up of musical artists will be present at the festival.

Karachi Eat was the first to empower small businesses and home chefs to put up their stalls for a larger public. Every year, during the last 11 years, home vendors have increased steadily till this year almost 75 per cent of stalls are home based rather than commercial entities.

This year, it introduces the Bringing Emerging Artists Together (BEAT) Festival, a musical event conceptualised to give a platform to Pakistan’s upcoming and undiscovered musical talent.

“Just as Karachi Eat provides a launching pad for aspiring chefs who want to step into the city’s food scene, the BEAT aspect of the festival aims to do the same for young, budding musicians who are only waiting for an opportunity to prove their mettle. We believe in harnessing the immense potential of Pakistan’s music scene,” says Omer Omari, the chief executive officer of the Eat Festival.

The festival will feature many diverse stalls including De Calzone, 75 degree hot, Yak Grill, Dear Croissant, Jani Biryani, E Street, Sweetistry and Sombrero as part of 120 eateries on ground during the three days.

For its 11th edition, Eat Food Pakistan has launched EATSAPP, a food discovery platform that will be of use beyond the festival, allowing users to rate, review and discover new eateries near them throughout the year.

The Eat Festival Karachi 2024 promises to be a fusion of gastronomic delights and compelling musical performances, uniting the city so they can attend and experience the creativity and talent of the participating eateries and foodpreneurs.

The festival also celebrates the success of its second season of “Beginnings with us,” where home chefs compete for a coveted spot at Karachi Eat. With her brand Aysh De Cuisine, the winner, Ayesha Mughal, managed to wow everyone present by being declared the winner for the second year in a row. Her innovative take on rabri, chicken, and pizza-flavoured gol gappay will be available at stall number 76.

“Over the years it’s been very gratifying to have helped so many home chefs just by giving them the right platform,” he said.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2024