Lahore Literature Festival venue changed

LAHORE

The Lahore Literature Festival (LLF) 2017 has been reduced to a two-day event instead of three days with one day delay due to security concerns while the venue of the event has also been changed from Alhamra Halls to a local hotel.

The LLF has become a part of the cultural activity of the City and the event attracts tens of thousands of people from all over the province to the provincial metropolis every year. This massive attendance at the Alhamra Halls was also a difficult task with respect to maintaining security because the Alhamra premises was considered vulnerable. The event was originally designed as a three day event with four to five sessions every day in four different halls of Alhamra Halls on The Mall. These amounted to more than 60 sessions on a variety of topics, including performances and open discussions.

Last year too, the venue had to be shifted from The Alhamra Halls to a nearby hotel due to security issues, which forced significant reduction in the number of sessions that could be conducted.

This year the event was all set to take place at the Alhamra Halls, starting from Feb 24 (today) with a keynote address by Zehra Nigah followed by historian Peter Frankopan, the author of The Silk Roads. However, due to the recent wave of terrorism in the country, the LLF was cut down to a two-day event. The venue of the event had to be changed as well, especially after the DHA Z-Block explosion on Thursday.

The organiser of the event, Nusrat Latif, said that the the changes had to be made and venue shifted once again due to the sudden change in the situation in the provincial metropolis vis-à-vis security.