ISLAMABAD: Lok Virsa, in collaboration with Ministry of Culture is planning to organise a cultural festival in Multan during the next month.Lok Virsa’s executive director Khalid Javaid told Daily Times that the organisation was all set to hold the festival under instructions of Minister for Culture Pir Aftab Hussain Jilani. It will take place between February19 and 27, 2011 in collaboration with Multan Arts Council.A large number of master artisans, craftspeople, rural musicians, folk artists, folk entertainers and folk dance groups from all over the country including Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu Kashmir will participate in the event by demonstrating their skills for nine consecutive days, he added.The festival will kick off with a prestigious inaugural ceremony on 19 February and conclude with a colourful award ceremony on 27 February. The main attractions would include a representative exhibition of artisans-at-work featuring most authentic master craftsmen/women from different parts of the country including remote regions, artistically designed beautiful provincial pavilions showing the rich culture, craft & musical heritage of all the federating units, song and dance ensembles, cultural evenings, exotic craft bazaar and many other attractions.The ED underlined that focusing on rural Pakistan, the festival would serve to disseminate the dynamic creativity of our countryside and give rural folk a pride in their identity.The festival will provide a unique opportunity to the crafts people not only to display their artisanship at a central platform but also to sell their products to the public without involvement of middleman. Similarly, the folk artists and folk musicians would afford a chance to win recognition of their talent at national level. Besides, the festival aims to contribute a lot towards eradication of poverty and economic empowerment of the rural community as a whole, he said.
Explaining background, Javed apprised that the festival is being organised in implementation of the decisions taken in the last meeting of Lok Virsa board of governors wherein it was desired that equal representation should be given to all provinces and regions in projecting and showcasing their indigenous folk culture, craft & musical traditions both at national and international level.The board to hold festivals in the provinces also approved it and regions on the pattern of annual artisans-at-work festival (Lok Mela) organised by Lok Virsa at Islamabad. Previously, Lok Virsa organised a similar activity in Muzaffarabad last year, which was a great success – Dailytimes
