In the last few years, the number of festivals held in the city of Lahore, as indeed in all the major cities have increased greatly. There was a time when hardly any festival was held other than the Horse and Cattle Show and the All Pakistan Music Conference. Now many more are organised -- literature festival, book fairs, music sessions, fests of the performing arts and some of quasi politico-cultural nature dwarfing individual cultural activities. But other than the Alhamra which focused on the youth and those held in various colleges and universities, the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop has consistently concentrated on the youth. The Fourteenth Youth Performing Arts Festival organised by RPTW included, like in the past, many mediums like dance, drama, music, shadow puppet, mime, theatre and short films.

Of all the forms, the participation in music and dance by comparison was larger as well as more enthusiastic. These are also the expressions that have got greater element of prejudice involved. But it is either out of vengeance or defiance that the output is more charged with energy. This fizzles out as the prejudice becomes greater with grown-ups, especially women. There are few institutions to hone this talent, and then there are no opportunities to translate these on professional lines. It has been seen that the final outcome of this enthusiasm does not realise itself fully as it should.

As stated there are very few institutions that impart training in the disciplines of dance and music. Nearly all the groups and individuals that took part in the festivals were so to say self-taught. It was their passion for dance and music that made them take a few steps or strum an instrument. The internet has been their tutor and the forms of contemporary music and dance that they are exposed to. It was all in a way spontaneous and eclectic as they picked from various styles to clobber a raw form all their own. The participation was not only from the institutions but also involved individual effort at forming groups of dance, music, theatre or film.

The established educational institutions are facing a tough challenge from the institutions which have been set up in the private sector, and since this places greater emphasis on the co-curricular activity, there seems to be a greater incidence of participation by these institutions. There were multiple entries from some institutions as indeed many institutions have various branches that seem to function independently without any centralised control.

As often happens with younger people, the plays that they staged were either very direct or very abstract verging on solving some of the metaphysical issues that mankind has not really been able to resolve till now. There are many issues in this society and some of the plays tried to tackle those issues directly and with in-your-face approach. There was much loudness about them -- in acting, script in words and also in the use of music.

On the other hand, some of the plays seemed to be dealing with issues of abstract nature and these productions happened to be too airy fairy without a proper set of circumstances and credible characters. The youngsters find it difficult to bid goodbye to the assumption that the issues of the world can be solved through theatre, music and films.

The institutions set up in the private sector are somehow more equipped but some institutions particularly in the public sector did not lag behind as there was participation by the National College of Arts in mime, theatre and skits as well as by the music societies. The Engineering University, Lahore in the past has done a relatively more professional job with their theatre performances as they did this year too.

The institutions that participated with their groups/societies were Bahauddin Zikriya University, Beaconhouse School, Grammar School, University of Central Punjab, University College Lahore, St. Anthony’s High School, University of Lahore, Beaconhouse National University, Punjab University, University of South Asia, Kinnaird College for Women, Lahore School of Economics, Unique Institute, City School, Punjab College, NUST, Froebel’s International School, Learning Alliance, Forman Christian College, Ghulam Ishaq Khan Institute and Salamat Boys. Some independent groups also participated, in theatre like Natak, Locomania Productions, Be Positive Productions and Silver Street House, in music Nazar and Muzzamil Band, True Blood and Syed Abdullah Ali Hassan, in dance Ultimate Generation Crew, Shoaib Wazir and Sangeet Sagar.

It was a good omen that the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop returned to the venue where some of the largest festivals were organised by them in the past. From the year 1992 till 2008, all major festivals by them were held at the Alhamra Cultural Complex and the venue had become synonymous with international festivals that consisted of theatre, music, puppetry, dance, films, covering nearly all aspects of the performing arts. But, unfortunately, due to the bomb blasts in 2008, the venue had to be changed for purposes of security.