Friday, April 27, 2007
Karachi: The International Mystic Music Sufi Festival is being organized at Bara Dari, Karachi, from May 3 to May 7. The five-day event is being organized by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, in collaboration with the Sindh government.
The festival will feature over 300 Sufi music artists from Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Egypt, Holland, India, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, Senegal, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
This is the sixth edition of the festival. Karachi, however, has been selected to host the event for the first time ever.
“The festival aims to showcase the traditional aspect of Sufi music and hopes to get the youth involved more in this genre,” Rafi Peer group CEO, Faizaan Peerzada, said at a press conference Friday. “The main purpose of this festival is to communicate the spirit of Islam as a proponent of peace and love to a wide audience.”
The festival will feature various forms of Sufi music, including qawwalis, dances and poetry. Among the poets whose works will be used are Waris Shah, Bullay Shah and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. Works of living poets were strictly not going to be used, Peerzada said.
In the past, this festival has proved to be a platform for local musicians by granting them overnight international fame. Sain Zahoor from Punjab, for instance, had been relatively unknown when the festival discovered him. Zahoor then went on to great heights, and was recently honoured with the BBC Radio World Music Award.
Abida Parveen, Fateh Ali Khan, Sabri Qawal, Raza Alan Fakir, Sain Zahoor, Najam Sheraz are among the artists from Pakistan who will be performing at the festival.
Tickets for the five-day event are available for Rs 300, and organizers are urging families to attend.
Karachi: The International Mystic Music Sufi Festival is being organized at Bara Dari, Karachi, from May 3 to May 7. The five-day event is being organized by the Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop, in collaboration with the Sindh government.
The festival will feature over 300 Sufi music artists from Afghanistan, Algeria, Australia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Egypt, Holland, India, Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Pakistan, Senegal, Turkey and Uzbekistan.
This is the sixth edition of the festival. Karachi, however, has been selected to host the event for the first time ever.
“The festival aims to showcase the traditional aspect of Sufi music and hopes to get the youth involved more in this genre,” Rafi Peer group CEO, Faizaan Peerzada, said at a press conference Friday. “The main purpose of this festival is to communicate the spirit of Islam as a proponent of peace and love to a wide audience.”
The festival will feature various forms of Sufi music, including qawwalis, dances and poetry. Among the poets whose works will be used are Waris Shah, Bullay Shah and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. Works of living poets were strictly not going to be used, Peerzada said.
In the past, this festival has proved to be a platform for local musicians by granting them overnight international fame. Sain Zahoor from Punjab, for instance, had been relatively unknown when the festival discovered him. Zahoor then went on to great heights, and was recently honoured with the BBC Radio World Music Award.
Abida Parveen, Fateh Ali Khan, Sabri Qawal, Raza Alan Fakir, Sain Zahoor, Najam Sheraz are among the artists from Pakistan who will be performing at the festival.
Tickets for the five-day event are available for Rs 300, and organizers are urging families to attend.
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