Peace Festival of Arts 2007

Achievements:

Concluding event of Alaap Peace Campaign

The Peace Festival of Arts-2007 was the concluding event of Alaap Peace Campaign started in November 2006. The Alaap Peace Campaign was a symbolic campaign that engaged civil society organizations, students of various government or private educational institutes, publishers, artists, poets, musicians, dancers, puppeteers, singers and peace activists. The campaign started with first Interfaith Calendar of Pakistan and proceeded through four events (Kalam Night for Peace, Peace Mushaera (poetry recitation session), 2-day Writers’ Conference for Peace and, finally, Peace Festival of Arts-2007, which was a mega event covering two adjacent venues of Lahore Arts Council, The Mall and Aiwan-e-Iqbal, Egerton Road, Lahore.

Tribute to the legends

The Peace Festival of Arts-2007 paid unprecedented tributes to some of the greatest visionaries that emerged during the 8,000 years cultural history and 60 years political history of Pakistan. The personalities included great visionaries, peace activists, Sufi saints, Sufi poets, legendary modern poets, artists, intellectuals, journalists, peace activists and theatre performers. The Tribute Candles were especially designed by Alaap.

Tremendous performances

The Peace Festival of Arts-2007 brought numerous memorable performances by the young and senior, modern and indigenous, singers, instrumentalists, theatre performers and puppeteers.

Discussion Sessions

The Peace Festival of Arts-2007 invited leading intellectuals, writers, journalists and peace activists to have serious debate and discussions on the issues related to conflict and peace especially in the context of arts. The three leading discussion sessions were started with the scholarly papers by the leading scholars. The Discussion Sessions created big congregation of highly acknowledged and respectable personalities under one roof.

Folk and indigenous artists

The Peace Festival of Arts-2007 invited many folk and indigenous singers and dancers from Interior Punjab and Sindh. The indigenous dancers contributed to the diversity and colorfulness of the festival.

Painting Exhibition

The overall theme of “Peace” gathered hundreds of the master pieces of the classic and modern artists. The Exhibition was inaugurated by Saeed Akhtar, the most senior and respected artists of Pakistan.

Affiliations

The Peace Festival of Arts-2007 involved numerous civil society organizations, media organizations and governmental institutes. The Mast Radio-FM-103 was the main promoter of the event. The Iqbal Academy Pakistan, Heinrich Boll Foundation (HBF), Church World Service-Pakistan (CWS), Action-Aid Pakistan, South Asia Partnership-Pakistan (SAP-Pk), Democratic Commission for Human Development (DCHD), Sanjh Publications, ASR Resource Center, Idara-e-Taleem-o-Agahi, Punjab Urban Resource Center, Readings: books for All, Shirkat Gah and, first time, The City Traffic Police were some of the leading affiliations of the festival.

10,000 people participated

The Peace Festival of Arts-2007 was declared a family event. A large number of families including women, children, senior citizens, students and academics participated in the event. The four day event mobilized around 10,000 visitors.

Unprecedented Peace Rally

The Peace Rally, as the conclusion of the festival, was unprecedented in the history of Pakistan. The Rally was lead by the Dholl players. Thousands of women, children, youth and senior artists, painters, peace activists, poets, singers marched on the Mall Road of Lahore with Tribute Candles in their hands. It was the first dancing rally in the history of Pakistan. The Tribute Candles were presented to the Children Complex as a symbolic gesture of the transfer of the great cultural heritage of Pakistan to its coming generations.

Peace Activism strengthened

The Peace Festival of Arts-2007 held on August, 1-4, 2007 soon after the gory incident of Red Mosque in Islamabad. The whole environment of the entire country was so tense before, during and after the incident that looked a bit “crazy” to declare such kind of an event. The festival, however, proved to be a great success especially in terms of breaking the shackles of frustration and depression all around. The comments from the media, senior artists and participants of the festival reflected the importance of the event. The city of Lahore picked the symbol of the flame set by the Tribute Candles and Peace Rally. The Lahore saw repeated candle vigils by many of the organizations and forums after the Peace Festival of Arts-2007. Event Photo Gallery