Coke Fest: For the First Time in Karachi
Karachi has experienced an influx of food events in recent years such as Karachi Eat, Food Panda Bites and Vibes, and Italian Food Festival. This trend has captivated the attention of Karachiites who have shown immense interest in these culinary extravaganzas. Coke Fest was the most recent festival to hit the city.
Coke Music and Food Festival was a 3-day event that took place from 9th to 11th March at Beach Park, Clifton. In hindsight the event was not publicized effectively, in fact, many food enthusiasts missed out on it. The festival opened on Friday with 95 different stalls serving a variety of foods. From well-known restaurants to new local startups, Coke Fest had it all; Lals, Kababjees, Tao, Graffoodie, and Wrappeite to name a few.
The place was very well decorated and looked beautiful at night because of hanging lights and colorful arrangements. This was the perfect environment to enjoy good food and music. The well-managed parking and ticket kiosks made the entire experience seamless.
Early Sunday morning, I booked a ticket via SimSim, ordered a Careem and headed to the venue. I waded through the thick, stifling Sunday traffic and finally made it to the promised land. The smell emanating from the food stalls beckoned me to come closer.
I dashed towards the stall set up by Graffoodie and melted into their Chicken Tikka pizza fries. Heaps of cheese, wavy fries, chicken, jalapenos, olives – heaven. Next up were dynamite prawns from Tao, can’t go wrong with those. Later I tackled (in)famous Donut burger from 2 guys 1 grill, and boy was that a doozy.
The event was also a music festival and the line-up kept the audience entranced throughout. Asim Azhar had everyone on their feet on Day 1. Come Saturday, Strings and Zoe Viccaji kept the crowd entertained. Ali Sethi headlined Sunday’s festivities, followed by Quadrum and Rachel Viccaji.
Overall, Coke Fest turned out to be a raging success in Karachi, here’s hoping that it sets the stage for similar events in the months to come.
