Lahooti Melo to commence February 9

Fourth edition of the festival is being dedicated to ‘liberated women’

KARACHI: The annual Lahooti Melo festival is all set to kick off on February 9, 2019. The two-day-festival will take place in Jamshoro where artists, activists and people from different walks of life will get together to highlight social problems and good art.

“We believe that by organising such events, we can inspire social change and begin to transform our community, country and the world,” stated the description on the festival’s Facebook page.

While the festival essentially revolves around promoting live music and discourse around the creative industries, this time around, the organisers have dedicated the festival to much larger issues such as gender discrimination. Hence, the theme: An ode to the liberated woman.

Fakir Sufi Bhura Lal and group have a discussion between performances on the second day of Lahooti Melo 2016. PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

The organisers also aim to simultaneously engage members of the academia, government officials and head of institutions so that some practical solutions can be carved out from the festival.

As far as the line-up of artists is concerned, so far author Mohammad Hanif, Sounds of Kolachi and activist Nighat Dad have been formally announced while a number of major players are in the process of being finalised.

Lahooti Melo started out as an extension of the Lahooti Live Session in 2016. These were organised by The Sketches frontman Saif Samejo in an attempt to preserve and promote the indigenous music of Sindh. Since then the live sessions have branched out into a festival that is now in its fourth year.

The fourth Lahooti Melo is being organised in collaboration with the Sindh Culture Department.

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