Daily Times

The Eat Festival, Karachi’s highly anticipated and well-loved food and music festival, is all set to return for its 11th year from January 12-14.

The three-day extravaganza promises an unforgettable experience for the city’s food enthusiasts and music lovers. Like every year, a wide variety of food stalls serving a diverse range of sweet and savoury culinary delights, as well as an exciting evening line-up of musical artists will be at the Festival.

Karachi Eat was the first to empower the small businesses and home chefs to put up their stalls for a larger public. Every year, during the last 11 years, home vendors have increased steadily till this year almost 75 percent of stalls are home based rather than commercial entities. These exciting new discoveries, presenting a wide assortment of international and traditional foods, are always the most sort after stalls at the festival.

This year, the festival introduces the B.E.A.T Festival (Bringing Emerging Artists Together), a musical event conceptualised to give a platform to Pakistan’s upcoming and undiscovered musical talent. Our mission is to curate a unique ensemble of young and talented musicians, blending them seamlessly with underground artists and street performers. The grand finale, presented on the main stage at Karachi Eat, promises to showcase diverse musical talent.

“Just as Karachi Eat provides a launching pad for aspiring chefs who want to step into the city’s food scene, the B.E.A.T aspect of the festival aims to do the same for young, budding musicians who are only waiting for an opportunity to prove their mettle. We believe in harnessing the immense potential of Pakistan’s music scene,” says Omer Omari, CEO, Eat Festival.

The Eat Festival 2024 marks the event’s 11th year and will feature an interesting blend of seasoned players, many of whom got their start at the festival and upcoming eateries and foodpreneurs who will be following in their footsteps. The many diverse stalls will include De Calzone, 75 degree hot, Yak Grill, Dear Croissant, Jani Biryani, E street, Sweetistry and Sombrero as part of 120 eateries on ground during the three days.

For its 11th edition, Eat Food Pakistan has launched EATSAPP – a food discovery platform that will be of use beyond the festival – allowing users to rate, review and discover new eateries near them throughout the year. It goes further by informing users of menu items to have the highest engagement and are the most talked about. The APP also gives foodpreneuers the opportunity to market their brands and upload their menus in real time, thereby giving them full control of their own brand and sales boosts. At the Eat Festival 2024 the app is being launched as a pilot and will inform visitors on the most popular eateries and what others have to say about the food. The apps tagline sums it up perfectly; “We Know What You Want to Eat Before You Do.”

The festival also celebrates the success of its second season of “Beginnings with Us,” where home chefs compete for a coveted spot at Karachi Eat. With her brand Aysh De Cuisine, the winner, Ayesha Mughal, managed to wow everyone present by being declared the winner for the second year in a row. Her innovative take on rabri, chicken and pizza-flavoured gol gappay will be available at stall number 76. Omari is exceedingly proud of the growing number of home chefs. “Over the years it’s been very gratifying to have helped so many home chefs just by giving them the right platform. It’s our way of giving back to the city that has made the Eat Festival its own.”

The Eat Festival Karachi 2024 promises to be a fusion of gastronomic delights and compelling musical performances, uniting the city so they can attend and experience the creativity and talent of the participating eateries and foodpreneurs. The three-day festival, will be at the customary Beach Park, Clifton and aims to bring together the best of Karachi’s food and music scenes.