Friendship festival loses steam due to lack of sponsors

Abu Dhabi: The Pakistan embassy in the capital decided to postpone a 12-day charity event due to a lukewarm response from sponsors, an embassy official said.

The Pakistan-UAE Friendship festival was scheduled to be held between December 1 and 12 at the Shaikh Zayed Pakistani Cultural Centre in Abu Dhabi.

"We are planning to conduct it within the next six months," Faisal Tirmizi, the first secretary at the embassy, said.

"We targeted to raise Dh1.5 million from the festival for the development of three Pakistani schools in Abu Dhabi, but we could not get enough sponsors," Tirmizi said.

He said the organising committee aimed to raise Dh1 million from the sponsors and half a million from the community by way of entry tickets, raffle draws and sales proceeds.

"The expense of the festival alone comes around about Dh400,000 but we were able to find sponsorships worth Dh300,000 only", Tirmizi said.

"Most of the businessmen had already committed to sponsoring a number of events during Eid Al Adha and Dubai shopping festival which affected our plans," he said.