Ten years ago Basant was only celebrated in Lahore by the lower-middle class. Then the media (especially TV channels) started giving it coverage, which resulted in its tremendous popularity. A few years back, the government came into the scene and Basant has now become an official festival of Pakistan. Earlier, it was considered only as a Hindu festival by some staunch religious circles. This year, Basant was celebrated with record participation of the masses from all walks of life. Even President General Pervez Musharraf was in Lahore with his family to enjoy it.

This year there were at least half a dozen musical concerts held in Lahore on the day. PTV telecast a live concert from the historical Dyan Singh Haveli which was attended by many artists, but the biggest concert was held in the Lahore Fort which was organized by the Parks and Culture Authority and Prime Entertainment and sponsored by a cola company. The historical Diwan-i-Aam was the selected venue built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jehan in the 16th century. There was no stage as the original building was lit up artistically and used as a backdrop. Arrangements for 2000 guests were made but the number doubled itself on the evening. There was a rumour that President Musharraf was also coming, thus security was very tight which caused problems for the artists as well.

The show opened with folk dances from the provinces. Tauseeq Haider and Ayesha Malik, both hailing from Islamabad, were anchoring a concert on Basant for the first time. Ayesha Malik was looking very fresh in her blood red Valentine''s dress. Sindh''s Chief Minister Ali Mohammad Mehar was the centre of attraction. The show started at 9pm and ended at 5am the next morning. Salma Agha, Humera Arshad, Naghmana Jafri, Veena Malik and Nexus group went back without performing, and they were not very happy about it.

The crowd-pullers in the concert were Junoon, who came especially from Karachi to perform. Word on the grapevine was that Junoon had broken up and that Brian O''Conell had shifted back to the US. But when Salman Ahmed, Ali Azmat and Brian appeared on stage, the 10,000 people sitting there gave them a standing ovation. After performing seven songs they called it a night, but the crowd would have none of it. Junoon returned for an encore, performing their new cricket World Cup song. Ali Azmat''s fans, especially the females, were shocked to see him sporting his new hairstyle, or complete lack of it. Salman said on stage that the group was performing in Lahore after a long absence and he was glad to see the famous Lahori spirit present in the crowd.