First Deosai Plains Festival starts on August 28
Islamabad, Pakistan: The first Deosai Plains Festival will start on August 28 to promote tourism in Gilgit Baltistan.
“The 3-day colorful cultural festival at Deosai plains will be organized by the government of Gilgit Baltistan from August 28 to boost tourism industry as well as promote soft image
of the country”, said Muhammad Jehanzaib, the Secretary Information of Gilgit Baltistan while addressing a press briefing here on Thursday.
He further said the festival was being organized for the first time in history to attract tourists at world’s second highest altitude plateau – Deosai Plains to boost the tourism potential encompassing multi-cultural and multi ethnic aspects of the area.
The festival will serve the visitors to explore all kind of attractions, both for the domestic and foreign tourists at
plains including water sports, musical nights, cultural performances, horse riding, jeep rally and many others.
The musical night at plains includes the performance of singers from the mainstream and local area while the rich
festivities of the event will be a reflection of the mountainous communities with rich traditions.
King of Games and Game of Kings – Polo’ would be the hallmark of the event which usually attracts huge number of
spectators from all over the world, he said.
The overall aim of the festival is to promote ecotourism, adventure tourism and culture tourism coupled with mountain trekking expeditions both at national and international level while the organizers will also take care of the environmental protection in the area, the Secretary Information GB said.
The government of GB was funding the festival while the security of the tourists will also be ensured by the organizers as record number of tourists visited GB this year, he added.
Former Consultant to Ministry of Tourism Government of Pakistan and President of The Region Initiative (TRI) Agha Iqrar Haroon while appreciating the decision of holding Festival said that government has given a very less time to promote this event internationally and the event should have been announced at least six months earlier. He added that it looked that even has been planned in haste and would not get desirous result to promote soft image of the country as this event has not been sold in packages by public as well as private tour operators. He demanded to the ministry that next Festival should be announced next year well before its actual date.
