LAHORE  - The Rafi Peer Theatre Workshop (RPTW) is holding 11th annual Folk Puppet Festival that will be start from Thursday (tomorrow) and will remain continue till March 30 at the Rafi Peer Cultural Centre, Raiwind Road.
Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, RPTW director Usman Pirzada told the media men that the festival was an annual event, which celebrated folk puppeteers, story tellers, and local crafts. It is a week-long activity, which draws adults and children alike.
In the four-day festival there will be variety of shows by the folk puppeteers from all the provinces of Pakistan. This year the participant of festival will include; National Puppet Theater from PNCA, lslamabad, Alhamra Puppet Theater from Lahore art council, Asgher form Bahawalpur, puppeteer Mohammad Bashir from Multanm, M Nadeern, Mohammad Ali and M Shahid from Multan, Yasin and Aziz from Khanewal, M Ashiq from Lodhran and Durwaish from Dunyapur.
Usman said that the objective of the festival was to promote the traditional folk arts and performers from all the provinces of Pakistan. He said most of all it creates work opportunities for the local artists and their families, and encourages them to develop their art form and techniques.
He said RPTW was promoting culture and arts both at home and abroad for over thirty six years. Over 50 festivals of performing arts, have been held in recent years and millions of people have attended these festivals to watch 30,000 performers from around the world including Pakistan, he said.