Musical extravaganza: Festival returns to traditional venue

All Pakistan Music Conference dates back to 1959

LAHORE: Continuing in its 57-year-old tradition, the All Pakistan Music Conference kicked off on Tuesday evening at the Lawrence Garden open air theatre.

Music lovers congregated at the venue to become a part of the historical festival that dates back to 1959. “Since 2008, we had shifted to Alhamra in view of the adverse security situation. But this year we decided it was time for us to return to our original venue,” All Pakistan Music Conference joint secretary Farhan Ahmad Irfan said.

He said they felt that it was safe to return to the venue as the security situation across the nation had improved. He said it felt great to return to the festival’s traditional venue. “The response here has been great. We have actually witnessed a greater footfall this year as a large number of our older audience, which is familiar with Lawrence Garden, has staged a comeback too,” Irfan said.

A singing competition was organised among youngsters from various schools, academies and universities on the first evening of the festival. Separate categories were created for participants under the age of 10 and those enrolled at varsities. The students performed various genres of music including folk, semi-classical vocal, classical vocal, ghazal and percussion instrumental.

Other events slated to take place include a special evening dedicated to youngsters affiliated with various musical gharanas on Wednesday (today). A folk and light classical music night will be organised on Thursday while various classical maestros are expected to perform on Friday. All genres of music will be performed on Saturday, the festival’s concluding night. Trophies will also be distributed among competition winners on Saturday.

The first two evenings will commence at 6pm and the remaining will begin at 8pm. “There is no specific ending time for performances. Last year, some of our performances carried on till six in the morning,” Irfan told The Express Tribune.

All evenings are open to the people.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2015.