City. Interestingly, all the food stalls were run by the locals of the Walled City.
A local resident, Muhammad Jahangir, said the residents had never imagined that this kind of festival can take place in the Walled City. “I hosted the event with WCLA and my home was a welcome home for all the visitors. People enjoyed walking in the streets and listening to music and seeing street performers. I am grateful to WCLA for promoting our home and area we live in. now people surely know what the Walled City is,” he maintained.
Ajoka Theatre and Rafi Peer theatre were performing their art in the Sabeel Wali Gali and the shows were jam-packed. There were special shows for the locals of Old City and other visitors. Puppet show was one of the colourful parts of the festival. There were 100 street performers who had lost hope for their talent. Monkey show, snake charmer, tall man, magicians, jugglers, swirling darwaish, musicians, bangle sellers were seen during the festival.
The evenings were melodious with the music of folk artistes and Qawalls. Arif Lohar, Bushra Sadiq, Riaz Ali Qadri, Asif Ali Santo, Saien Ghulam Abbas, Saien Zahoor, Mulazim Hussain, Nirmal Shah, Rafaqat Ali Khan, Tabraiz Aziz Mian, Adeel Burki, Sanam Marvi and Shair Ali Mehar Ali performed in the festival. The music evenings were located at Wazir Khan Chowk.
DG WCLA Kamran Lashari said the festival was organised to promote heritage and culture of the Walled City. People were not familiar with the old city, but I have seen the footfall and now I guess the doors of the Walled City are open for all the people who wish to visit it. This festival will surely being back tourism to Lahore, he concluded.
Asif Zaheer, Director Marketing, WCLA, said the authority tried to promote local art and culture through this festival. These were the forgotten crafts which we had set up at Bazaar Wazir Khan. We plan to set up a permanent Arts and Crafts bazaar at Bazaar Wazir Khan.
This is one way of promoting the artisans and help in their economic uplift.
Tania Qureshi of WCLA said residents of Walled City participated in the festival from their heart and soul. She said holding such a big festival was a very tough task in an open space, but the local security and police helped a lot. She said the local community was involved at every level in this festival.