The Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi organised a 3 day Pakistan Literature Festival at Alhamra Arts Council, Lahore for the promotion of arts, literature and culture and several esteemed personalities were invited to talk about different topics relating to the aforementioned areas and also featured renowned musicians to perform there.
Since I was volunteering at the event, I got to see everything up close and realised that it actually takes a village to set up such an event and that a myriad of individuals work tirelessly for the noble cause of preserving the culture which is a job majority takes for granted.
It was a breath of fresh air in the polluted Lahore which is not only polluted by the intoxicated fumes within the air, but also the hatred and extremism within people due to the ongoing economic and political crisis, which is basically the situation of the whole Pakistan these days.
Youngsters danced their worries away at the concert while the elders were mesmerized by the words of their favourite writers. Everybody came together in a cheerful environment to celebrate all the good things about Pakistan.
The environment around us have been gloomy nowadays as everybody is anxious about managing their daily expenses due to painful inflation but at the festival, the audiences seemed to have left their worries at home. Alhamra just radiated positivity for the whole three days.
Most importantly, it was an event for all as nobody had to spend hefty amounts of money to enjoy their favourite musician perform live or gather the wisdom of a literary personality they admired. This was a great relief for attendees. We are currently going through a phase where most of the youth feel sad about belonging to Pakistan and this was a festival was to restore your pride in your Pakistani identity. It was nothing less than a cultural revolution.
And consequently, it was also a festival of hope – hope for a country with a faltering economy and selfish politicians and such events are crucial for our development as a nation because we should be familar with and have a desire to embrace our culture in order to succeed.
Kudos to Arts Council of Pakistan for taking this initiative and taking it forward to other cities and all across the globe to US and Canada to spread the glorious Pakistani culture.
