The biggest, or perhaps the best known, festival of Lahore, was that of Basant (or Jashn-e-Baharaan) held in February each year. Basant is a Punjabi festival celebrating the onset of the spring season and was also called the Basant Festival of kites.
This festival was celebrated with kite flying competitions all over the city especially in the Androon-E-Shehr (The Inner City or the Walled City of Lahore) area.
The sky used to be literally filled with colorful kites of all shapes and sizes flown from rooftops. The kites were flown on strings called “Dorr” which is a special thread with cut glass embedded within which serves to cut the thread of competitor kites more effectively. Some of the kite-flying competitions get extremely competitive and serious. Women, on this day were seen wearing a bright yellow dress up to the hilt. This festival gained more and more importance over the years and used to attract people from all over the world.
But since 2007, it has been banned.
