LAHORE, Nov 5: A four-day Sufi Mystic Music Festival will open at Rafi Peer Cultural Complex on Nov 8.

It was announced by creative director of the festival, Faizan Pirzada, at a press conference held at Rafi Peer Cultural Complex on Monday.

Mr Pirzada said all arrangements for the festival had been made and “the event is expected to attract a large number of audiences from different walks of life.”

On Oct 20, he said, the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop had organised a Sufi Mystic Music Festival in Oman in which seven countries, including Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Algeria, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, participated.

He said the festival being held in Pakistan mostly had local participation except a performance from Syria.

He said the RPTW had recently returned from India after holding an extremely successful Sanjh festival in which 70 artistes participated from Pakistan and most of them were qawals.

He said the performances of Sain Zahoor were highly appreciated by the Indian audience. The festival was held at Amritsar and it was an yearly feature by RPTW from Pakistan and Punar Jod from India.

Giving details of the festival, he said the event would bring together a diverse group of Sufi singers from all over Pakistan to showcase Sufi poetry and music that was created more than a thousand years ago.

The festival has been organised by RPTW in collaboration with Royal Norwegian Embassy.

The festival had been founded 10 years ago to promote Sufi music in the country to bring about a change in society both socially and ethically.

Cultural festival: A four-day four-nation cultural festival featuring films, documentaries and artworks exhibition will open at Alhamra Art Centre, The Mall, on Nov 8.

It was announced in a press conference held at the Iranian Cultural Centre by Global Culture and Heritage Foundation organiser Ali Rizvi. The participating countries in the festival are Iran, Pakistan, China and Turkey. The Punjab Culture secretary will inaugurate the festival.

Mr Rizvi said the festival was being organised by the foundation in collaboration with the Iranian Cultural Centre and the Ministry of Culture, Punjab.

He said the exhibition would open with the inauguration of a cultural exhibition at Alhamra Art Gallery.

The festival will feature documentaries on each country and feature films from participating countries. Iran will screen famous movie Rang-i-Khuda and Pakistan Heer Ranjha. There will be a Turkish film show and a Chinese film show as well. The festival also includes a Turkish dance performance.