By Minahil Shahab/Mohammad Sohaib
ISLAMABAD: After being an outright success in Lahore, Coke Food Festival in Islamabad struggled to draw crowds on second consecutive day of an otherwise well-organized event.
A festival which celebrates food and music, saw a very slow opening day and struggled to attract the residents of the twin cities despite its scenic setting and scrumptious food.
The event suffered a blow on its opening day when renowned singer Ali Sethi decided against coming to Islamabad. His was the most anticipated performance of the festival, however, in a video message on Friday Sethi ruled out the possibility of performing in Islamabad due to a sore throat. He will be replaced with Stereonation, who will take the stage on Sunday.
@alisethimusic won’t be able to perform at the #CokeFest . ???#islamabad pic.twitter.com/FlcxctWoj4
— Sammy (@sami1195) December 9, 2017
The lack of turnout on the first two days of coke fest didn’t sit well with the stall owners and Hannan Tariq from Rahdari Restaurant said he ‘wasn’t expecting such a low turnout’. “The first day was very slow, but this has been a relatively better day,” Tariq said.
Representatives of Active Media – the chief organizer of the event – agreed that the turnout wasn’t as much as they anticipated, however, they were optimistic that numbers will swell late on Saturday and Sunday.
Umar Shahid, who is the assistant manager client services at Active Media said that his team is expecting a great response from Islamabad as they still have a ‘whole weekend up their sleeves’. He further said that although Lahore was a huge success, the amount of stalls coke festival has been able to attract is testament to its success in Islamabad. “We have 88 food stalls in place here in Islamabad and the variety of food is mind boggling, we even have Japanese food available here,” he said.
Shahid said that it is great to see an increased activity in the cities of Paksitan. “We are already behind other nations in preserving art and culture in the country, so it is very important that such events are organized consistently.
As the day progressed on Saturday, crowd lined up outside stalls and while stalls set up by Johnny and Jugnu, Riwayat and Chattas were the most popular among the crowds, Churro Churro also got a reasonable response. Shaoor Siddiqi from Churro Churro said that people are responding well to the ‘crunchy and yummy’ churros dished out to them. “The crowd has been great, we are enjoying ourselves,” he said.
People in general were happy about the increased activity in an otherwise quiet city of Islamabad. “It’s great to see the unusually quite Islamabad being charged with these festivals” Fakiha Nadeem. Nadeem was referring to ‘Islamabad Eat’, a food festival that had been a great success in Islamabad in early November.
Shakeeb Ahmed, who is the regional head client services at Active Media, said that they started food festivals in February and it has been a great experience thus far. “After this we are going to Faisalabad, Multan and finally Karachi, and we have had great response thus far.”
