Islamabad family gala ends on high note

Islamabad : The two-day Islamabad Family Festival ended at the Pakistan-China Friendship Centre here on Sunday on a high note.

As the people from Islamabad, Rawalpindi and adjoining areas showed up in large numbers, stallholders at the two-day Jang Media Group event reported good response of the visitors.

The stalls offered clothes, food, jewellery, furniture, matrimonial services, real estate projects, and industries.

The handicrafts stalls were a major attraction for women, who bought wallets, handbags, mats, rugs, embroidered clothes, wall hangings and decoration pieces, while youths and children showed interest in Gaming Zone, Kids’ Arena and Chocolate and Cheese Festival.

The people also thronged the food court offering a wide range of snacks and beverages.

They appreciated the event saying it offered them healthy and fun-filled activities. They said such events should take place regularly.

“This event has provided us and other families of Islamabad and Rawalpindi with shopping, entertainment and eating opportunities under one roof. There should be more and more such events,” said housewife Samina Khan.

Accompanied by family, businessman Sikandar Jamal also declared visit to the festival a good experience and said all his family members, especially children, enjoyed being there.

“I take family out every weekend and since I learned about this festival through a newspaper advertisement, I brought wife and kids here. By doing shopping, participating in fun-filled activities and having snacks, we all have a good time here,” he said.

Student Manan Ahmad said though the festival had many attractions for him, the gaming zone and theatrical performance stood out from them.

The stallholders appreciated the holding of the expo and said it had always helped boost their business.

Some of them offered discount on their products and services.

Marketer Zulkarnain said his organisation offering home and car safety solutions had participated in the event for the first time and had got a good response from visitors.

“By and large, people either don’t know the importance of safety products for home and vehicles or care little about it, so we’re here to spread its awareness besides marketing our goods and services,” he said, adding that people could protect homes, vehicles and themselves from theft or serious damage by spending little money.

He said his stall had attracted lots of people, who were keen to know about car and home security.

Areena of the shaadee.pk matrimonial service said participation in the event helped her organisation increase its client base.

“Many new people got themselves registered with us to avail themselves of an extensive range of spouse choices matching their vision and need,” she said calling for the holding of more such events for the people’s benefit.

A salesman at the Golden Pearl Cosmetics also reported good visitor response and said people bought their products, especially beauty enhancing and caring ones, after on-the-spot, free consultation and demonstration.

The organisers declared the event a success saying a large number of people visited it on both days.

Salman Rashid said the festival had around 80 stalls, which were visited by around 80,000 in two days. He said the group had planned to hold the event next years, too.