"We are extremely honoured to be a part of this festival and to meet with other bands from South Asia." - Photo Courtesy: www.mekaalkhasanband.com

KARACHI: Invited to New Delhi by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), Mekaal Hasan and his band members will headline at the South Asian Bands Festival on December 12.

The two-day, free event in New Delhi is a collaboration between the ICCR, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs and Seher, an organisation that promotes the arts and culture in India. Currently, the countries being represented include Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Myanmar, India and Sri Lanka. The expected number of people in attendance each night at the festival is anywhere between 8,000 to 10,000.

“We are extremely honoured to be a part of this festival and to meet with other bands from South Asia,” said Mekaal Hasan in a phone interview with Dawn.com. “We wanted to visit India earlier this year but were unable to do so due to visa restrictions, but this time round our visas were facilitated by the ICCR, making the process much simpler.”

The South Asian Bands Festival is held annually in New Delhi and has, over time, become a much-anticipated event that has always been free for the public so as to provide entertainment for all sections of society. Strings represented Pakistan in at least two festivals.

“Our aim is to bring together the SAARC nations as well as other countries in South Asia...to promote diplomacy, to reach out to the youth as a reflection of how we are essentially the same people divided by borders,” said Manjot Chawla, the Associate Producer of the festival.

Limited in the number of bands they could invite due to various reasons, Chawla added that they would have liked to invite Zeb and Haniya to perform. “They are such incredible musicians; we definitely want to invite them next time.”

Mekaal Hasan, who will be visiting New Delhi for the first time, having performed in other cities across India, stated that the band would love to hold a series of concerts in the country. “We would love to visit India, there’s no reason for us not to!”