Exciting music mela ends at PNCA

Islamabad
The musical part of the third day of the FACE Music Mela taking place at the PNCA in Islamabad, featured The Envoys; Sketches, (Sindh fusion); Mai Nimani, (Sindhi folk); Mary McBride (country rock); Faiz Ali (qawwali); Umair Arif (classical dance); Sanam Marvi (Sufi folk) and Grace McLean (American contemporary). MC’s for the evening were Omar Khalid Butt and Farah.
The programme began on time, which is a huge plus point in Pakistan! The Envoys group is actually composed of four ambassadors -Peter Heyward (Australia); Nedim Makarevic, (Bosnia & Herzegovina); Jesper Møller Sørensen (Denmark) and Hiroshi Inomata, (Japan). A fairly large crowd of people were already seated in front of the stage, with a few other envoys and their spouses present to support their colleagues. They sang four popular songs of the 80’s -90’s and really appeared to be enjoying themselves while performing, interacting with the crowd like all good musicians do. When Peter Heyward asked if they knew The Beatles, someone in the crowd shouted back, “I want to hold your hand,” to which Peter humorously responded ‘Sorry, I’m already married,” eliciting delighted laughter from the audience! There were demands for ‘more’ but they stuck to the schedule and left the stage amidst appreciative applause.
Sketches were met with enthusiasm by their fans in the crowd and soon had most young men dancing in their places. Mai Nimani, who is not as yet very well known, came next and was a pleasant surprise because of her charming, no nonsense manner. She was a crowd pleaser and the audience loved her. Mary McBride was another hit and belted out her numbers with exuberance - another crowd pleaser because country rock is popular in Pakistan. Faiz Ali and group were late in arriving so Grace McLean came on stage next. Her kind of music is not so well known here and she did try hard but the response was not the same as the crowd was charged up by the previous performances and could not quite relate to her ‘music,’ especially as there was a technical hitch which resulted in a short break. Sanam Marvi came next and because she is famous, she had a bit of an attitude and was not as charming as Mai Nimani - no smiles or crowd pleasing chit chat, just instructions to the musicians and on with the show. But her songs were well received by the audience as they are quite popular. By now a few drops of rain threatened to disrupt the programme and some people left, including myself, so I cannot say what happened next but I’m sure the show went on. Crowds of entertainment hungry men, women and children were still pouring in to the venue even at this late hour.
The music mela is a good initiative by FACE and the sponsors and the volunteers do a good job of registering visitors etc: but some aspects need to be improved. For instance, the PNCA parking lot was a mess after the rains and no effort had been made to set it right, with the result that parking space had shrunk and many visitors who did park there had to walk through slush after parking their cars. The seating was not properly arranged - open space is left in front of the stage for people to sit on the floor but the youngsters sitting here stand up to dance, so those who are seated behind them cannot see anything since the stage is not high enough. In the beginning security volunteers are strict about visitors crossing boundaries but soon give up as the crowd gets bigger, though it must be said there was no misbehaviour. A drone camera had the US ambassador’s security in a dither until it was removed, so such matters should be settled beforehand with television channels.
Since such a large number of people attend the mela wouldn’t it be better for the organisers to hold the event in the Sports Stadium or other similar venue, where large screens could be put up and food stalls are more accessible?