Lok Mela Festival 21

Lok Mela Festival takes place annually at the National Institute of Folk and Traditional Heritage (NIFTH) commonly known as Lok Virsa. Lok Mela is celebrated to honor the local artists, craftspeople, and artisans of the country. The mela usually lasts 10 days, but this year it was a 7-Day festival, and not-so-surprisingly, the turn-out was better than previous many years, as people needed to breathe some fresh air, but with their masks on. Not sure about a post-war world, but post-COVID era seems fascinating for everyone, the artists, the public, and the organizers even, are craving to see how the outside world looks like.

The festival celebrates cultural diversity, where many forms of expressions are expressed, by the many artisans and craftspeople present and share their crafted art, including folk music, performances, handicrafts, and other cultural endorsements with the world.

Such events are not only a good opportunity for the creators and the curators, to showcase, but also for the people to learn about diversity. Lok n’ Folk fests are not only good on societal/cultural level(s), but also help the economic flow, in the sense, there are not only handicrafts or artifacts, but also stalls of all kinds, for instance, food stalls, toy shops etcetera which is a good opportunity for the local sellers - a win-win situation for everyone.

Lok Mela 21’ started on November 1st and concluded on 7th November. As per an estimate, 17000 visitors visited Lok Mela this year. These visitors include people from all walks of life, from ministers to celebrities to artists to craftspeople to “people” people and foreigners & tourists as well. This year was more organized than the previous years, there were pavilions allotted to the performers representing different regions/provinces of Pakistan. This is a very well-thought idea, and should be appreciated, as it helps the visitors in exploring different cultures and subcultures, as well as for the performers, as rushed performances, in a controlled environment, with a limited time slot were avoided.

On the first day, the Federal Minister for Federal Education and Professional Training, and Federal Minister for National History and Literary Heritage, Mr. Shafqat Mahmood also visited Lok Virsa, and seemed very keen and interested, which is good for the culture, hope it helps the people who make the culture worth it, i.e., the artists, the craftspeople, and the folk folks.

Four provinces of Pakistan, plus Gilgit-Baltistan and the Kashmiri culture(s) were divided on six days, which means that lok n' folk performers from many localities and different geographical regions performed and introduced the world with folk music and performance with the world. Day 1, marked the day of Gilgit-Baltistan Musical Night. Followed by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, Balochistan, Sindh, and Kashmir in this order: where musicians and folk artists performed their traditional music. Lok Virsa Musical Night was celebrated on the seventh day which concluded the 7-day lok festival. It concluded with special performances by various artists, the highlight of the night was a special collaborative performance by the Blue Sax Band with Javed Niazi and Babar Niazi. Awards and prize money was distributed among the 600+ lok performers who made this one-of-a-kind event more special.

Mr. Talha Ali Kushvaha stated that he was more than happy with the 7-Day Lok Mela Festival 21’. He praised his team and management for all the arrangements. In an exclusive word with TeamAEM: he believes culture is what brings the people together, “Such events bring the people closer, and people can learn about other people and discover about their lifestyles” he added “Passion, humility and respect bring the people together, and this is the beauty of culture, that it helps in shaping-up and understanding the individual and collective identity” When asked about the primary goal of celebrating cultural diversity, Kushvaha said, “The primary goal of celebrating culture, heritage, and diversity is to connect people with their roots and bringing them closer to their (cultural) identity”. “This year was a success, because people from many cultures were on the same platform, we even had organized Club Music for the youth”, he further added.

Culture helps in identifying, which in turn helps an individual, in becoming a better and more aware; as a person. If a folk mela can bring the people closer, without any pride or prejudice for seven days, imagine what staying connected with the roots would do to the society, it would eventually help in developing more tolerance, empathy, and compassion with the other members as well as the other many aspects of the society. Hope more such events take place that help the cause of eliminating the little constructed differences we humans create that take us away from us. Hope that artisans, and craftspeople from different localities get supported and credited for preserving the culture and heritage, in terms of exposure, growth and finances..