Daily Times

Pakistan’s first-ever music festival for children and families was organised by Roshan Rahain in Lahore on Saturday.

Roshan Rahain is a non-profit organisation working to highlight the importance of teaching children using various forms of art including music. The festival was held at Ali Institute of Education, one of the festival partners and received an overwhelming response, with over 700 attendees including children, teachers and families.

The main objective of the festival was to integrate music with learning, which was achieved successfully through carefully planned workshops covering various topics such as Introduction to Mausiqi and Mausiqar for the Sub-Continent, History of Singing and Listening to Qawwali and How to set up a Recording Studio from Scratch. Teachers and parents also attended the workshops with their children and thoroughly enjoyed the unique experience. The workshops were held by festival partner Dheere Bolo.

Schools which attended the festival included House Of Juniors, Allied School, Crescent Model School, LFS, The Educators, DPS, IKL, Lahore Garrison, Mohsin Public School, KIPS, Qurban Public High School, Faridia Public High School, SOS Village, Rukshana Foundation, King David Music Academy, Unique School, Beaconhouse School System, Government Girls Model School and TNS.

Popular singer and ‘Pakistan Idol’ winner Zamad Baig attended the festival as judge and performed at the closing of the festival. Families were also kept entertained by games and food stalls which were set up at the venue.

Teachers who attended the festival shared their feedback.

Lahore Grammar School Principal Madiha Ahmad said, “It was a very engaging and an entertaining experience for the children and such activities should be carried out often.”

“It was amazing how children were engaged during the workshop, the overall experience was very entertaining,” a senior teacher at LGS said.

“The concept of using music with learning was a good idea. The students, teachers and parents were all so engaged throughout the festival,” a teacher from Ibn-e-Sina said.

Shirmeen Ali, Student Counsellor, Beacon House: “We are very happy that we attended the festival as it was a perfect learning experience for children, parents and teachers alike,” BSS Student Counsellor Sharmeen Ali said.

Roshan Rahain CEO/Director Shaigan Azhar shared the overall objective of the festival by saying, “The idea behind organizing the Music Festival was to introduce the concept of integrating music with learning skills of children, we worked very hard to put together series of musical workshops which were engaging and yet fun to attend. We had hundreds of children, families, teachers who attended our festival and it was encouraging to see that almost all of them endorsed our idea. We will be bringing more innovative projects for children and families alike.”