Lok Mela Folk Festival, Islamabad

The experience

Lok Mela Folk Festival, Islamabad

A gentle introduction to Pakistan's living culture, with nightly performances and artisan markets at Lok Virsa.

History & background

Lok Mela has been organised annually by the Lok Virsa Heritage Foundation, a federal institution founded in 1974 to document and preserve Pakistan's folk and traditional culture, since the early 1990s. Each year it brings several hundred craftspeople, musicians and performers from every province, Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir, to one site in Islamabad, functioning as a living, temporary museum of regional traditions that would otherwise take months of separate travel to see. It has grown into one of the largest folk gatherings in South Asia, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors over its run, and remains the single best introduction to Pakistan's cultural range for a traveller with limited time.

Day by day

The programme

1. D1Arrival in Islamabad

   Opening evening at the Lok Virsa auditorium.

2. D2Lok Mela Day

   Craft pavilions, food streets and folk music.

3. D3Margalla & Departure

   Morning at Daman-e-Koh, airport transfer.