Karachi — One of the city’s oldest cultural landmarks, Khaliqdina Hall, is getting ready to come alive again this Sunday as it hosts the Reading Room Festival, a day-long celebration of arts, stories and local creativity. And honestly, for a city that’s always buzzing but rarely slows down for cultural reflection, this feels like a welcome breather.
The festival kicks off at noon and goes on until 10 pm, with free entry — something that’s already tempting a lot of curious Karachiites who’ve been eyeing the event on social media. Organizers say the idea is simple: open the doors of a historic public space and fill it with the kind of creative energy that makes people want to stay, talk, make things… and maybe discover something new about their own city.
A Full, Almost Jam-Packed Lineup
If you’ve ever wandered into Khaliqdina Hall and thought “it’s beautiful but eerily quiet,” Sunday will flip that image completely. The garden area is being turned into a series of hands-on creative stations — truck-art painting, chamakpatti work, zine-making, block printing, cross-stitching, basket weaving and a few other crafts that usually disappear into small corners of the city. Festival volunteers say the idea is to give people a chance to “make something with their own hands,” even if it’s a little messy or imperfect.
Inside the main hall, a very Karachi-style mash-up of performances and conversations is planned. The day starts with a play titled Unfit Ball Hai Dunya Meray Aagay, scheduled for 2 pm, followed by a set of panel discussions that dive into themes most of us rarely think about unless someone nudges us.
One of them — “Fishing the Narrative” — brings together chef Asad Monga, along with Akif Raj and Fatima Bibi, for a conversation on food, identity and coastal storytelling. Another session, “Reading the City,” will feature voices like Afzal Zaidi, Meher Jafri, Nusrat Khawaja and Saima Zaidi, exploring how Karachi is read, misread and sometimes completely ignored in mainstream narratives.
As the sun starts dipping, things shift toward performance. A dastangoi session — the old-school art of storytelling — will take center stage just before Ghayoor Moiz Qawwal and his ensemble close the night with qawwali. If past performances are anything to go by, this one’s going to draw a crowd.
Food, Because It’s Karachi
No Karachi festival is complete without snacks that you end up remembering for weeks. The outdoor food area will serve bun kebabs, kachoris, chaat, fries, pakoras, chai and a rotating mix of small vendors who specialize in the kind of comfort food people here swear by.
A Historic Venue With a Long Memory
Khaliqdina Hall, built back in 1906, isn’t just a pretty building. It has hosted political debates, community meetings and even the 1921 Khilafat Movement trial, which is now a significant chapter in South Asian history. The structure has been restored in recent years through efforts by Numaish Karachi and the British Council’s Cultural Protection Fund, quietly transforming it from a fading heritage site into an active cultural node.
And that’s really what makes Sunday’s festival special. It’s not just about art or workshops or music. It’s about bringing people back into one of Karachi’s oldest public spaces and reminding them that heritage only survives when people actually use it.
What This Means for the City
Karachi doesn’t get enough free, public, family-friendly cultural events — at least not ones that feel welcoming and thoughtfully put together. The Reading Room Festival tries to fill that gap, even if only for a day. You can walk in without a ticket, without knowing anyone, without any clue what you want to see — and still walk out having learned or made something.
For a city that contains multitudes but often forgets how important shared cultural spaces are, this feels… refreshing.
