Alhamra Sufi Festival, Lahore: Programme and Visiting Tips

The Alhamra Sufi Festival is a three-day programme of qawwali, Sufi dance, theatre, calligraphy and panel discussions held at the Lahore Arts Council (Alhamra) on the Mall. The edition we can document ran from 28 to 30 November 2025, and by press accounts it drew large crowds. No date has been announced for 2026 or 2027 that we could find, so if you are planning a trip around it, wait for the Arts Council's announcement, which in 2025 appeared in the days before the opening.

It is a different experience from a shrine urs. The music and dance are staged in halls, the audience sits, and the setting is a cultural centre rather than a saint's tomb. That makes it an easier first introduction to Sufi performance for visitors who find the crush of a Data Darbar night too much. This guide covers what the 2025 programme included, what we do and do not know about tickets and timings, and how to fit it into a Lahore trip.

What is the Alhamra Sufi Festival?

Alhamra is Lahore's best-known arts centre. It stands on Mall Road and has a 1,000-seat auditorium, a 450-seat hexagonal theatre and a smaller hall for lectures and recitals, according to its Wikipedia entry. If you want more on the building and what else is staged there, see our guide to Alhamra Arts Council in Lahore.

The Sufi festival takes the same ground as a religious urs, the music, poetry and mysticism of the Punjab shrines, and puts it on a programme with times, speakers and halls. Alhamra's executive director, Mahboob Alam, described it as reflecting a yearning for peace, love and spiritual enrichment (APP). An earlier three-day Sufi festival at Alhamra, organised with the Punjab Auqaf and Religious Affairs Department, was also reported by APP, with art and craft exhibitions, calligraphy, whirling dervish dances, poetry recitals and a mehfil-e-sama, a gathering for spiritual music.

What was on in 2025

The 2025 programme, as announced by the Arts Council and reported by The Nation, Daily Times and APP, ran like this.

Day one, 28 November

The festival opened on Friday with a calligraphy exhibition titled "Whirling Lines of Sufi Wisdom", which presents Sufi ideas as visual art. A panel discussion followed on youth, intellectual challenges and the thinker Wasif Ali Wasif, with speakers including Sahibzada Kashif Mahmood, Qasim Ali Shah and Dr Waseem Ullah Shaheen. The evening was a staged play, Maqsood-e-Kull Main Hoon!, performed by Ajnta Theatre. The Daily Times gave the opening event time as 2:30 pm.

Day two, 29 November

Day two started with a discussion on Punjabi Sufi heritage and poetry and what it might say to young people. Speakers included Dr Sughra Sadaf, Dr Imdad Hussain, Dr Zakariya Zakir, Nain Sukh and the dancer Yousaf Punjabi. The evening featured Yousaf Punjabi's Sufi dance and a Sufi Night led by the vocalist Tahsseen Sakina, with the Alhamra Academy of Performing Arts presenting raqs-e-darvish, the dervish dance.

Day three, 30 November

The last day began with a panel on the influence of Sufism on society and its relevance today, with Dr Fahad Ali Kazmi, Dr Tariq Sharif Zada, Dr Waqar Yousuf Azeemi and Dr Moeen Nizami, moderated by Dr Fatima Fayyaz. In the evening Riaz Ali Qadri and Ghulam Ali Qadri sang, the Versatile Group performed whirling dance, and the qawwal Sher Miandad closed the festival with a qawwali. APP's closing report placed the dance in Hall 2 and the qawwali in Hall 1.

Through all three days

The reports mention a book fair, food stalls and other cultural activities running alongside the main programme. The Arts Council also streamed events online.

Is there a ticket, and how crowded is it?

We could not find any report stating a ticket price or whether entry was free for the 2025 festival, and the official announcements we read left it out. We will not guess. Check Alhamra's own pages or call the Arts Council once the next edition is announced.

On crowds, the evidence is better. The opening day was described by The Nation as attracting a large number of visitors, APP reported "unprecedented footfall" for the venue, and Business Recorder's headline spoke of thousands flocking to the festival. Popular evening performances at a venue of this size can fill early, so arrive well before the evening performances rather than at the advertised start. Hall capacity is finite (see above), and the qawwali on the final night is the one most likely to be full.

When will the next festival be held?

The 2025 edition fell on the last weekend of November, and Alhamra has not published 2026 or 2027 dates as far as our research shows. Unlike an urs, this is a fixed-date cultural event, so it does not move with moon sighting. If it returns in the same slot, the end of November would be the likely window, but treat that as a guess and wait for the Arts Council's announcement. The 2025 dates were published only shortly before the event, so do not book non-refundable flights or rooms on an assumption.

Weather and air in Lahore in late November

If the festival returns in late November, you will be in Lahore at the start of its cooler season. Days are mild and evenings need a jacket, which suits a programme that runs into the night. It is also the time of year when smog can become a problem, and some days are poor for anyone with asthma or heart conditions. Our guide to Lahore smog explains how to check the air and when it is worst, and our Lahore in winter page covers what to wear and what to do when the air is bad.

Getting there and getting around

Alhamra is on Mall Road in central Lahore, close to other sights that make an easy day around a festival evening. The area has the Lahore Museum, the Anarkali bazaar side and the Mall's colonial buildings within reach; our guide to Mall Road lists what to see along it. For getting around the city, how to get around Lahore covers ride-hailing, the Metro Bus and rickshaws.

On festival evenings the roads around Alhamra are likely to be busy and parking tight. A ride-hailing drop-off or a lift from a friend is easier than driving, particularly on the final night.

How to behave at a Sufi performance

This is a stage event, but the music is devotional, and some of the audience will be moved by it.

• Dress modestly, as you would for a shrine. Covered arms and legs, and a scarf for women is a sensible choice.
• Don't film continuously. Many people find phones in their eyeline distracting during a qawwali or a whirling dance.
• Don't walk across the front of the hall during a performance, and stay in your seat during the dance.
• Don't call the whirling dance a show. For the dancers it is a spiritual practice. Applaud when the audience does, and not before.
• Follow the organisers' instructions on seating, bags and what may be brought into the hall.

If you want to understand what is being sung before you go, our guide to qawwali in Lahore explains the form, and shrines in Lahore lists where the same music is played at its original sources.

Is it worth planning a trip around?

Not yet, since there are no dates. If you are already in Lahore in late November, check the Alhamra programme: it is a good, low-risk way to hear Sufi music in comfort and to see calligraphy and panels that you would not find at a shrine.

If you want the raw version of the same thing, with dhamal, drums and an all-night crowd, a shrine urs is the better choice, and our guide to the Data Darbar urs covers the biggest in Lahore. For other Lahore festivals that follow a fixed calendar, see the Faiz Festival and the Lahore Literary Festival, and browse our experiences page for more.

Frequently asked questions