The city district government has changed its plans to hold three cooking competitions at the Fort Road Food Street. There will be only one ‘mega event’ in the last week of December, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Earlier, the city government had decided to hold the first of three events on November 10 and 11. The plan was cancelled in a Fort Road Foot Street committee meeting chaired by its President DCO Noorul Amin Mengal held on Thursday. The event was cancelled owing to an international dengue seminar scheduled to be held at Hazoori Bagh on the same dates. The committee cancelled the event, fearing that the dengue seminar might overshadow the food festival.
The meeting decided that the mega would include highlights of all three events. The event will promote local heritage, Pakistani cuisine and tourism.
The first of the three events, which was to take place on November 10 and 11, was a cooking competition amongst female students of various colleges and a competition amongst chefs of various restaurants other than those from the food street.
The second event, The Lahore Food Festival, was to take place at the end of November. It would have included magic shows, puppet shows, comedy shows and qawwali and ghazal concerts. An official said the event had been cancelled due to Muharram. The committee was of the view that people would not be attracted to this event in the month of mourning.
The third event, which will take place, is the Winter Food Festival. The FRFS committee expects a large number of chefs and female students to participate in the competition. Stalls of local handicrafts and winter shawls will also be set up. Folk and pop singers are also scheduled to perform.
The committee has informally informed Punjab University, Lahore College, Kinnaird College, Home Economics College and University of Lahore to register their students for the event. The DCO Office will also send letters to the colleges. Each participant will be given a stove and a number of food items.
FRFS Secretary Col (r) Altaf Ahmad Malik told The Express Tribune that they had to cancel the two events due to the international dengue seminar and Muharram. He said that the December event was, however, confirmed. He said that since it was a seven-day event, they would hold a variety of competitions.
Malik said one of the aims of the event was to promote the food street as many Lahoris are unaware of its existence. He said it would also help promote tourism as the food street was located in a historical place. He said one could witness the real heritage of Pakistan at the food street.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 3rd, 2012.
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