State of grief: Food Street Xmas celebrations cancelled

Mega Food Festival delayed again.


Rameez Khan December 23, 2012

LAHORE:


The city government has cancelled a three-day Christmas celebration at the Fort Road Food Street following the assassination of Bashir Ahmed Bilour, the senior minister for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, in a suicide attack by the Taliban on Saturday.


The festivities, scheduled for December 23-25, were to begin with a cake-cutting ceremony, followed by celebrations at the various eateries on the street. The plans, finalised some time ago, included the setting up of special stalls and swings for children.

Fort Road Food Street Secretary Col (retired) Altaf Ahmad Malik said the event had been cancelled owing to the state of grief that the country was in following Bilour’s murder. He said that the city government had decided to call off the event on Saturday night, shortly after confirmation that the minister had died of injuries sustained in the attack at Peshawar’s Qissa Khwani Bazaar.

Mega Food Festival postponed again

Meanwhile, the so-called Mega Food Festival has been postponed for the second time and is now tentatively scheduled for late January, representing the latest failure of the city government to hold events in a bid to drum up business at the new food street.

The Five day

Earlier this year, city government officials announced that three special events celebrating local cuisine were planned.

First, on November 10 and 11, there was to be a cooking competition among female college students, as well as a contest among chefs working at restaurants other than the eateries located at the food street. The second event, the Lahore Food Festival, was to take place at the end of November, but was cancelled due to Muharram. And the Winter Food Festival was planned for December.

After the various hitches, the city government decided to hold just one event, the Mega Food Festival, in the last week of December. It then decided to shift the event to January 4-6, and now apparently to late January.

Col (r) Altaf said that he was hopeful that a five-day event would be held starting on January 21, coinciding with the one-year anniversary of the Fort Road Food Street. It would include the cooking competition for female college students as well as other contests.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 24th, 2012.

 

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