As the second edition of Coca-Cola Food & Music Festival concludes, Instep looks into the progress of the festival so far.
Coca-Cola Food and Music Festival’s second edition that kicked off in Lahore concluded in Karachi last weekend. The festival was a haven for foodies as well as music aficionados. Several artists performed live including Strings, Ali Sethi, Zoe and Rachel Viccaji, Asim Azhar, Quadrum, Fuzon, Sahir Ali Bagga and Wahaj Hanif, amongst others.
The journey of the Coke Food and Music Fest began two years back in February 2017 with a pilot run in Lahore, titled Party in the Park. It was a three-day event that featured different cuisines and amazing musical performances. And the second edition of the festival was bigger and better as it completed its journey across Pakistan, including Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan, Islamabad and Karachi. Since then, it has been a roller coaster ride filled with fun, food and entertainment.
Being one of the nation’s biggest food and music festivals, the footfall recorded in all the events combined was over 200,000, engaging more than 600 food vendors across Pakistan with around 250 food start-ups. The Coke Fest offered different cuisines, which was curated based on the reviews and feedback of the members of Foodies ’R Us food portal. Coke Fest spokesperson Asad Sheikh, founder of the influential food collective Foodies ’R Us stated, “Food is the only common denominator between every culture and it’s the only thing that brings people together.”
The Coca-Cola Food and Music Festival was envisioned as a platform to bring together the best in food and music in a series of weekend events across the country. It all started with a big idea of combining best of Pakistan’s food and music under one umbrella.
As far as the stellar line-up of performers was concerned, artists for the Coke fest were majorly selected from Coke Studio because of their immense popularity and hit songs. Moreover, Pakistan’s favourite and longest running music group, Strings returned to the limelight via Coke Food and Music Festival, which was a huge success. And it’s definitely a treat to see that so many artists have been given a chance to belt out some of their hits on a live platform.
Reflecting on the festival that concluded last week, CEO at Activemedia Saad M. Khan, said in a statement, “It was a beautiful wrap up of the second edition of Coca-Cola Food and Music Festival and we have already come a long way. Expanding to five cities with hundreds of food stalls and the biggest artists on stage, the festival has broken all the records.”
Certainly, the second season of Coke Food Festival had a lot more to offer. Hoping for a bigger and better third season.
