ISLAMABAD, Apr 9 (APP):A four-day long ‘Jashan-e-Qaqlasht’ festival would be held from April 11 at upper Chitral and Kailash valley, featuring different traditional sports and cultural activities.
Qaqlasht is the old-age festival of the people of Chitral with a history of more than 2,000 years.
Major events of the festival includes traditional sports like Polo and Matches of tug of war, Falcon prey, Race, Shooting (of ‘Siyah Kaman’), Local hockey, football and other activities like Buddy Dik, Cultural show, Quiz competition, Mushaira, Traditional food stalls, and paragliding.
During the festival, stalls of traditional food would be set up while a cultural show and music night would be arranged.
It also features music of reed instrument and that of pure Chitrali sitar. Folk dance includes ‘chong righishi’ and ‘tatali wawali’, and ‘mamashish’ which are at the verge of extinction.
The festival is organized with the objective to protect the indigenous Kho culture and to highlight and market it as tourism product so as to attract maximum national and international tourists to the region that could help reduce poverty by providing tourism-related job opportunities to the locals apart from promoting cross-cultural understanding and harmony.
The festival is aimed to protect the indigenous Kho culture and to highlight and market it as a tourism product to attract maximum domestic and foreign tourists to the region.
