LAHORE: The six-day Punjab Youth Theatre Festival concluded here on Sunday amid lively participation by artists from different cities of the province and educational institutions.

The Bagh-Jinnah Open air Theatre, the venue for the prize distribution ceremony of the festival, was packed with audience, mainly comprising the youth.

The festival was also a contest among various theatre groups sent by arts councils working under the Punjab Council of Arts and different educational institutions.

Divisional arts councils from Bahwalpur, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujranawala, Sargodha and Rawalpindi presented their theatrical productions during the festival.

Sargodha Arts Council won the first position, Rawalpindi bagged the second and Multan stood third.

For the first position, the cash prize was Rs0.1 million, for the second 50,000 and for the third it was Rs20,000. Certificates and shields were also awarded to the winners.

Among educational institutions that participated in the contest, Lahore University bagged the first position, Punjab University secured the second and Kinnaird College grabbed the third.

The case prizes and certificates were distributed among winners by provincial minister Rana Mashhood.

The three-member jury that adjudged the contestants comprised veteran TV film actor Masood Akhtar, playwright Munir Raj and former Punjab Council of Arts employee Iqbal Khalid.

On the occasion, actor Masood Akhtar said after judging the plays he was of the view that there was an immense talent in Pakistan when it came to theatre and other performing arts.

He said theatre played an important role in highlighting different issues society was confronted with.

The minister also gave shields to Punjab Council of Arts Director Chaudhry Asif

and Deputy Director Mian Naeem Ehsan. The theatre festival was coordinated by Prof Zafar Iqbal from multimedia department of the National College of Arts (NCA).