Karachi 10th Annual Youth Festival 2016 opens with aplomb

The 10th annual youth festival, held every year by the Karachi Arts Council, opened with a bang, with a large, fully involved audience clapping in unison to the musical numbers, the dancing lights and the sparklers.

There was no shortage of admiration for vocalist Shahzad Roy, who was the star performer of the evening. The audience, a large chunk of whom were below 30, really rocked and swooned to his melodies. This was the opening item of the weeklong festival.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, who was to be chief guest, could not turn up as, some said, his flight from Sukkur had been delayed, while others said that he had some pressing errand to perform.

Sports Minister Abid Khan Bhayo substituted for the chief minister and lauded the “awesome” participation of the young people. In his very brief speech, he announced that the Rs100 million for the Karachi Arts Council building, sanctioned y the chief minister, had been granted.

The chairman of the Festival Committee, Muhammad Ahmed Shah, said that over 20,000 children had participated in the latest festival’s art and photography exhibitions. “We want the Arts Council to be a platform for singers, musicians and dancers from among them.”

“The obscurantists,” he said, “want the children to sink into darkness and just equip them with lethal arms. We want to groom their budding talent and make them grow up into accomplished people,” he said.

Congratulating Ahmed Shah and his team, the Karachi Commissioner, in his speech, lauded his efforts and said that art and culture were the life of a society. “Without these, society is dead.”

Then it was Shahzad Roy’s turn to take charge of things and he entertained the poeple, who seemed to be simply mesmerised by his vocalism and clapped in rhythm in unison.

One of the numbers he rendered was an uninhibited story of Pakistan. It was story of the machinations of the capitalists once Pakistan was created and how they had sucked the blood of the poor and the country.

The song begins with the bright hopes and vision harboured by the Quaid for the country and his speech to the Constituent Assembly on August 11, 1947, and how the capitalists had hijacked these. He also rendered the Sindhi melody Dama Dum Mast Qalandar. 

The show was still going on as this piece went to the press.