Despite being the site of much disruption and turbulence, Lahore has been seen as a laid back place supporting a lackadaisical lifestyle. It was said about Lahore’s cultural vibrance “sat din tay ath mailay – kum karan mein kairay wailay”. But many of the festivals mentioned in the books have either disappeared from the scene or have been watered down and some new ones have taken their place. Some have been re-invented and totally new ones in consonance with the times have now assumed greater importance.

One hardly hears of Qadmoan Ka Mela, Charyon Ka Mela, Paar Ka Mela, Bhadar Lali Ka Mela, Jhor Ka Mela, Baisakhi, Dasehra and Diwali or Patang Bazoon Ka Mela though the most vibrant festival of Lahore was Basant. In the early years after Partition, it was held with full vigour in the Walled City with champion fliers demonstrating their expertise in Manto Park but with the passage of time it enveloped the entire city, even spreading to other cities in equal frenzy. Karachites also caught the bug and discovered the joy of flying kites on the beach. It was a festival in which everyone participated as the kites and the thread were cheap and the entire city became the venue. The daybreak was announced with flying kites from rooftops amidst undulating chants of “bo kata”.

During the 1990s and the first decade of this century, it became fashionable as the corporate sector moved in. Roof tops were rented out and night Basant with flood lights upstaged the day long revelry. Chartered flights off loaded guests from across the country, if not the world, and city businesses received a fillip. The festival was deliberately killed due to a number of reasons, majorly citing the hazards that it entailed. But underlying it was a more puritanic recasting of our cultural practice.

For two decades, the Rafi Peer Theatre Festival expanded like wild fire. From one festival of puppetry, it blossomed into the performing arts, theatre, films, music and a series of events revolving around the youth. It was a truly international event with dozens of groups and hundreds of participants taking part from across the world. It can be said without fear of exaggeration that international participation to this extent has never been seen in Pakistan then and since. It just tapered off with growing incidents of terrorism in the country in the first decades of the 21^st Century. But like all other event organisers and impresarios, it put up a brave face till it itself became a target of terrorism.

The Alhamra had been holding theatre and music festivals that became a regular feature with established groups. The All Pakistan Music Conference was the first big platform for performances primarily of classical music, and its annual event became associated with the Open Air Theatre Bagh-i-Jinnah. As Roshan Ara Begum was nominated as its titular head, it became the venue for kheyal, thumri and even dhrupad virtuosity.

Mela Chiraghan was the biggest festival of the Punjab. It was and still is built round the urs of Shah Hussain, the iconic rebellious Punjabi poet who died around five hundred years ago. Celebrated in the last week of March, it became huge in the centuries that passed probably being celebrated across the board during the reign of Ranjit Singh. It was held in the Shalimar Garden, the largest in the city built during the reign of Shah Jahan and continued to be celebrated there till the 1960s, when it was moved out of the garden into the adjoining areas around the mazar of Shah Hussain in Baghbanpura. Till a few decades ago, the area was not overly inhabited and there was enough space for theatre and music performances and the jugglery shows as well as the very big market that sprung up during the three days of the festival. Chiraghs were lit for the duration and so it came to be named Mela Chiraghan, especially in the Shalimar Garden. Now there are no chiraghs, only a bonfire that is lit for three days, around which the dhamaal takes place to the beat of the dhol by the malangs as they whirl and sway with matted hair in mostly saffron and red attires.

Shah Hussain’s kaafis are very popular and sung both as kaafis and as text for other songs in different genres. Considered one of the first major poets of the Punjabi, he laid the foundation of the poetical and idiomatic framework which then was followed by subsequent poets including Bulleh Shah, Khwaja Ghulam Fareed and Sultan Bahu.

The other major sufi shrines doubling as venues for cultural expression in the city are Data Sahib and Main Mir. The former is the venue of one of the biggest qawwali performances; the latter has diminished in scope. The areas around the shrines are all built up and the space for theatre shows is almost not there any longer. The Mian Mir urs is now a shadow of its former self while that of Data has a more puritanic ring about it.

The Horse and Cattle Show in the years following the military rule became quite a draw with people being fascinated by acrobatics, tattoo show display and other demonstrations of military-like synchronised formations. The centre of it all was showcasing the agricultural base as a way of life. A market, too, sprang up but gradually the agricultural goods were replaced by industrial products, yet people thronged to the site for relaxation and bonhomie.

Of late, many literary festivals, book fairs and, ones around poets, principally Faiz Ahmed Faiz, have been held quite regularly drawing crowds interested in listening to famous writers and poets talk about their work and the conditions around them.

The writer is a culture critic based in Lahore