From the 7th – 8th of May, 2026, the historic Alhamra Arts Council will open its doors to something Lahore has not seen in this form before, the first ever Lahore Kathak Festival (LKF), a two-day celebration of Kathak that feels, in many ways, like a blazing return to a city that once lived and breathed the form. The festival is both revival and reimagining, bringing Kathak back into a shared public space through performance, dialogue, and learning.
There was a time, not too distant, when Kathak was part of Lahore’s everyday cultural rhythm. In the 1990s, performances were more visible, classrooms carried the discipline of riyaaz, and the dance form was taught and practiced with a familiarity that now feels rare. LKF arrives almost like a remembering of that era, when classical dance was not confined to archives or closed circles, but existed in conversation with the city itself.
At the heart of this lineage is the towering influence of Maharaj Ghulam Hussain, also known as Maharaj Kathak and Baba Maharaj. After Partition, he dedicated his life to nurturing and preserving Kathak in Lahore through rigorous teaching, performance, and an uncompromising commitment to discipline. His work became foundational, gracefully shaping generations of Kathak practitioners in Pakistan and ensuring that the form did not disappear from the country’s cultural landscape.
The festival does not treat this history as distant memory. Instead, it positions it as something living, something still in motion. Alongside established names such as Nighat Chaudhry, Sheema Kirmani, Adnan Jahangir, and Hammad Rasheed, the festival also opens its stage to emerging artists and collectives like Harsukhiyan and Kathakaar.co, creating a rare intergenerational dialogue within classical dance spaces.
Beyond performance, LKF expands into in-depth panel discussions and interactive workshops titled ‘Thaat’ and ‘Abhinaya,’ offering audiences and practitioners a deeper engagement with rhythm, expression, and narrative. These sessions also explore the evolving conversations around gender, identity, and discipline within Kathak, pushing the form beyond presentation into reflection.
The festival is spearheaded by maan sayeed (written in lowercase as per the artist’s preference), a Kathak dancer trained across multiple lineages, including under powerhouse Nahid Siddiqui and Hammad Rasheed, and currently working with Sanjukta Sinha. Alongside co-founders Momina Farooq Khan and Rameesha Muzaffar, both Kathak dancers themselves, he has shaped LKF as a platform that resists exclusivity and opens space for different journeys within the art form.
Speaking about the vision behind the festival, maan reflects simply but firmly: “This isn’t just a festival, it’s a space that should have existed sooner. And it’s here to stay.”
That sentiment runs through the structure of LKF itself. It is not positioned as a polished showcase alone, but as an intentional disruption of hierarchy within classical performance spaces, where access has often been limited. Here, seasoned performers, returning artists, and first-time stage performers share the same platform, challenging who gets to be seen and how tradition is carried forward.
At its core, the festival feels like a generational handover, not in the sense of replacement, but continuity. It is being shaped and driven by young Pakistani artists who are actively reclaiming space for Kathak in a contemporary cultural landscape that often sidelines it. In doing so, they are not just staging performances, but rebuilding a cultural vocabulary that once felt deeply embedded in the city.
For tickets, go here!
Header image: Lahore Kathak Festival
FLWL – From Lahore With Love is a proud media partner for the event.
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