LAHORE: The Four-day 8th International Mystic Sufi Festival by Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop will kick off at Peeru’s Cultural Complex on April 22, creative director of the event Faizan Pirzada told Dawn.

He said besides local performers, 25 artistes from India, Afghanistan and Germany would participate in the festival.

Mr Pirzada said 12 artistes, local as well as foreigner, would perform during the festival. The individual ticket for first three days of the festival will be Rs300 per day, while for the concluding day it will be Rs1,000.

Tasneem Pirzada, the media coordinator of RPTW, said on the final day of the festival Abida Parveen would perform and as she was an expensive artiste the ticket would be Rs1,000.

Mr Pirzada said the festival celebrated the tradition of devotional expression through the performing arts in Muslim and other communities.

The festival, he said, had a particular relevance, especially in these times when so many misconceptions had crept into matters of faith, creating a wide gap between the moderates and the conservatives.

The festival, he said, sought to showcase Islam’s rich diversity of devotional expression through the performing arts, reflecting different geographies, languages and traditions. Though different in form, these performances illustrated the peaceful search for the divine that was common to all religious traditions, he added.

He said music and musicians had always been playing an important role in the Muslim world. From Indonesia, to south and central Asia, the Middle East, Africa and to Europe, music served not only as entertainment, but also as a way to express devotion and reinforce common values and tradition, he added.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/21/2010