Concert postponed over India-Pakistan tensions

A launch event for a three-day festival celebrating the spiritual and artistic richness of Sufi culture has been postponed due to tensions between India and Pakistan.

The three-day Sufi Music Heritage Festival in Bradford is the culmination of a wider 16-month project which has included workshops with community groups and schools.

The sold-out launch event was due to feature a Qawwali performance by acclaimed artist Hamid Ali Naqeebi at Mind the Gap Studios.

He was unable to travel back to the UK from Pakistan due to restrictions on international flights because of the ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan, organisers said.

The Sufi Music Heritage Project was launched by Bradford's WomenZone community centre with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Organisers said given the ongoing uncertainty they did not see "airspace restrictions being lifted in the immediate future".

"As a result, we have made the difficult decision to reschedule the event to a later date, once we are confident that Hamid will be able to return to the UK and perform."

Festival co-ordinator Aamta Tul Waheed said planned events due to take place on Saturday and Sunday would still go ahead.

Sufi music is rooted in a mystical branch of Islam, and often uses soaring singing of classical poetry, traditional instruments and rhythmic clapping to induce a spiritual state in audiences.

Qawwali is a devotional Sufi music form from South Asia, featuring powerful vocals and rhythmic drumming. It was popularised in the Western world by legendary singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and has many fans outside of the Indian subcontinent and its global diaspora.

Singer, poet and lyricist Kauser Mukhtar, who is performing as part of the festival over the weekend, said Sufism's "global" messages of community, connection and seeking inner peace "apply to everyone".

"People practise it differently and in the South Asian culture it is particularly related to Qawwali singing, to a very strong culture of poetry, but there are also things like Rumi or the whirling dervishes in Turkey."

She said it could be "very emotional" to sing literature or poetry written 500 years ago that was still as important and "impactful" as when it was written.

Saturday and Sunday's events, held at WomenZone's Hubert Street base, include a youth-led performance, children's crafts, mosaic making, and yoga sessions for families.

An open mic event on Sunday invites local voices to share stories and poetry inspired by their cultural roots.

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