The third Faiz International Festival 2017 concluded recently in Lahore. By all accounts it was a roaring success attended, in all, by several hundred thousand people over two days. Every session was packed with audience members standing at the back. There was a near riot on the second day when several dozen young men were denied entry to one of the sessions which was already full but overall, despite the huge number of people present, there was no unpleasant incidence, no fights broke out, no women (out of the large number present) were harassed or otherwise bothered and everyone seemed to have a good time. The session themes included music, poetry, literature, art, politics and much else besides. Several sessions were devoted to left wing politics and speakers were invited from many of the small left political groupings in Pakistan in order to try and revitalise the debate around issues of workers, peasants, women etc.
Despite the obvious success of the gathering, right on cue, the complaining started. Perhaps, like Faiz, we ought to ignore the naysayers and focus on the positives but these complaints have been repeated so many times and on so many occasions that they deserve at least a brief response. A favorite grouse is that this festival (and all those like it) are ‘elitist’ and ‘upper class’. While this may be true for some festivals, the Faiz festival has always been open to the public and there was no police presence or excessive security to deter anyone from coming. The motor cycle stand in front of Al-Hamra was full and the general make up of the crowd ranged from well off all the way to those who clearly had not driven to the festival in a car. In fact, middle- and working-class people appeared to be the majority certainly on the second day with a lot of young, working class activists present who packed the halls for the political sessions.
This idea, that somehow, cultural activities should be completely free in a country where there does not even exist a dedicated ministry of culture is ridiculous. We have always said that if every Pakistani contributed Rs 1/month to Faiz Foundation, we would never again charge a penny for any event or festival
Another common criticism against the Faiz Festival organisers has been that they are ‘selling’ Faiz by accepting corporate sponsorships to which a simple question would be: how else should we pay for a festival of this size and scope? Booking the venue costs money, advertising costs money, inviting speakers and artists costs money. Who will pay? There was no ticket to enter the festival, no cost to attend 90% of the sessions (2-3 of the evening musical sessions were ticketed) so how should money be raised? The festival has no government or NGO support and everyone working is volunteering their time. Every year, until the very last minute, the Faiz Foundation has no idea how they are going to come up with the projected budget and somehow, every year, we miraculously break even because of the generosity of Lahore’s citizens allowing us to come back next year and do it again. This idea, that somehow, cultural activities should be completely free in a country where there does not even exist a ministry of culture is ridiculous. We have always said that if every Pakistani contributed Rs.1/month to Faiz Foundation, we would never again charge a penny for any event or festival. But until that happens, we will need to ticket at least a few events to survive.
A more insidious attack always comes from Pakistan’s moribund ‘Left’ itself: that we have somehow abandoned Faiz’s socialist ideology by accepting some corporate sponsorship for the festival. Those making this insinuation have clearly never attended the festival. Otherwise they would see the only functioning leftist party in Pakistan, the Awami Worker’s Party, occupying a prominent place in the festival. And this charge simply confirms a sad truth in Pakistan today: what passes for the Left in Pakistan is divided and fractious. They squabble over the minutest points and the only thing they hate more than the Mullahs and those on the Right is each other! If they actually bothered to attend the sessions and read our literature (including my biography of Faiz ‘Love and Revolution’), they would know that in these difficult times we have remained true to Faiz’s ideals and continue to try and do our part in propagating his ideals of socialism and humanism.
These churlish attacks notwithstanding, the overwhelming majority of attendees gave the festival ‘two thumbs up’ and we have, apparently, managed to recover most of our costs and even added a few new donors to the mix. The critics should be ready. Faiz International Festival 2018 will be the biggest one yet!
The writer is a Trustee of the Faiz Foundation Pakistan and the author of ‘Love and Revolution: Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the authorized biography’. He tweets @Ali_Madeeh
Published in Daily Times, November 24th 2017.