LAHORE: The Lahore Arts Council, the premier cultural body of the city, has unveiled the tapestry of its forthcoming programmes including a line-up of music shows, theatrical ventures and art talks.

Woven into rich texture of the local culture, a music sitting with folk singer Attaullah Esakhailvi is up on the line as the inaugural show in the extended line-up of programmes the council plans to hold in June and July.

The solo music show by Esakhailvi was earlier postponed two months ago owing to his health issues.

`We would have gone for the folk melodies by the iconic Esakhailvi two months ago but his aching backbone lef t us with no option but to wait for the right time,` Art and Culture Director Zulfiqar Ali Zulfi told Dawn on Sunday.

The council keeping up its 14-year-old tradition of holding drama festivals will reminisce the good old times when this fes-tival was first materialised af ter having long discussions and floating of numerous ideas.

Theatre groups from all over Pakistan would be invited and encouraged to participate in this 10-day activity. The festival will have Ajoka Theatre, Azad Theater, Rafi Peer Theater, Mass Foundation Theater and other groups from all over the country.

`The theatre festival will be a great event in Lahore as many groups will come up with new scriptshighlighting ahostofissues.

The festival will be held in July.

Perhaps as a prelude to the Theatre Festival 2019, the council will organise a 15-day workshopontheatreforchildren aged between 8-15 years during the current month; the dates for the workshop will be announced in the next few days. The council has first time put forth a registration fee for the workshop which is Rs1,000 so that only genuinely interested people apply for the practicum.

The council is also planning a visual art workshop on landscape and portrait and a photographs exhibition in coming weeks.