ISLAMABAD, April 17: The Lok Mela witnessed an unprecedented rush over the weekend as more than 120,000 people from the entertainment-starved twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad visited the cultural festival. Lok Virsa Director Dr Adam Nayyar, in a press release issued here on Sunday, said the Lok Mela would continue till April 24 from 11am to 11pm daily.

The director said Friday evening featured the ‘Balochistan Night’ with a contingent of 89 dancers and singers. Pakhtoons from Balochistan danced the traditional Atan, while locals of Makran coastline performed their inimitably fluid and sinuous Leva.

The performance opened with Pakistan’s most ancient Balochi Narr Bait, a narrative form in a deep voice by a singer accompanied by a reed flute into which the player buzzes.

The audience were also treated to an audio track from Australian Aborigine Didgerridoo, an instrument with uncanny resemblance to the Narr.

The ‘Frontier Night’ on Saturday evening looked like a washout because the expected star singers from NWFP did not arrive, but a packed theatre of more than 1,500 vociferous young Pakhtoons were entertained by the regular performers from the Frontier pavilion.

With the opening chords of the Rubab, an expectant silence fell on the audience. The opening lines of the stirring Mungo Yo Khyber Zalme Pakhtoon Zammanga Shan De — we are the warrior of the Khyber, the bearers of Pakhtoon honour — triggered a deafening roar of approval from the audiences, who streamed down the aisles and livened the performance with impromptu dancing in front of the stage.

Flustered organizers unsuccessfully tried to hold back the exuberant dancers from the stage. What started off as a damp squib turned out to be a fun evening for the Pushto-speaking community of the twin cities.

On Sunday, the festival livened up after the end of the last one day international in Delhi when festive crowds in a celebratory mood invaded the festival grounds in large numbers.