Music Meet, the team behind Pakistan’s first ever music symposium, staged the third edition of the Lahore Music Meet (LMM) at the Alhamra Art Centre in Lahore on Saturday and Sunday.
The two-day festival was dedicated to bringing together musical minds from across Pakistan for a celebration and critique of music and featured some of the country’s leading music artists such as Sajjad Ali, Ali Azmat, Meesha Shafi, Momina Mustehsan, Arshad Mahmood, Haniya Aslam, Uzair Jaswal and Javed Bashir to name a few.
LMM team had set up a series of panel discussions and master classes featuring a variety of topics on music such as, Presenting the Presenters, Composing Hits: From PTV to Pakistani Pop and Heritage & Archiving: Preserving Music in Pakistan, among others, along with workshops and storytelling sessions.
Speaking about the third edition of LMM, festival directors Natasha Noorani and Zahra Paracha said, “This year, we feel like we’ve successfully managed to get a collection of artists, to speak and perform, who capture some of the major soundscapes in Pakistan today.”
“It is wonderful to see that within a week since the PSL, another huge crowd has gathered at LMM to show their support for a festival that clearly supports peace, culture and music. So PSL was not a one off, there are many more platforms that will rise and sustain through all times as long as our public shows up to give their support,” said Bashir.
The two-day event was open to the general public with no cost of admission. The fest was headlined by award-winning artist Slowspin and indie singer-songwriter Ali Suhail on day one with Pakistan’s leading indie band Poor Rich Boy and classical music maestro Javed Bashir performing on day two.
The afternoon showcase featured artists such as Hathi, Abdulah Siddiqui, Ehl-e-rock, Janoobi Khargosh, Kashmir, Jaubi, Keeray Makoray, TMPST, MU, Patari Tabeer, Saakin, Wooly and The Uke, Shajie, Shorbanoor, Wisdom Salad, Tonight Us, Noah’s Heark, Mehdi Maloof and Muhammad Aizaz.
For its third iteration, LMM received over 250 applications from across the country for the live performance sessions which were then shortlisted by Noorani and Paracha.
LMM also hosted an audiovisual exhibition titled Rang Saazi. Co-curated by Alifiyah Imani and Azka Shahid, the showcase featured contemporary visual artists who have broadly explored and interpreted music as a subject and subculture.
