LAHORE: Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has changed the Basant 2027 dates for the second time, bringing Lahore’s kite festival forward by six weeks and stretching it from three days to 10. The move leaves the city’s kite makers less time to produce stock for a much longer festival.
Under the schedule approved on Wednesday, Basant will be celebrated in Lahore from January 29 to February 7, 2027. There will be a one-day break on February 5 to observe Kashmir Solidarity Day.
This is the third schedule since August. The government first picked late January. The chief minister then set a three-day window in March, and the Lahore commissioner confirmed March 12 to 14 earlier this month. The new dates replace that plan.
The chief minister described the extended festival as a gift for the people of Lahore to mark the new year. She said it would promote Punjab’s cultural heritage and Lahore’s centuries-old traditions around the world. She directed officials to make better arrangements for citizens’ safety and convenience than those made for the previous Basant. She also urged Lahoris to show the same sense of responsibility and care for human life that they showed last time.
In 2026, Basant returned to Lahore from February 6 to 8, after being banned in 2007. The ban followed deaths and injuries caused by metal- and chemical-coated string, particularly among motorcyclists. The revival was held under the Punjab Regulation of Kite Flying Act, 2025, and treated as a pilot. The Home Department later told the Lahore High Court (LHC) that 17 people died during those three days.
2026’s Basant was marked by shortages. Manufacturers had only about a month to produce stock, and buyers saw kite string prices roughly double within days. A citizen took the issue to the Lahore High Court, which directed the Lahore commissioner to act on prices.
To avoid a repeat, the administration opened the Basant Portal to manufacturers on September 5, about six months before the March festival. For the first two weeks, however, not a single licence was issued. By last week, more than 3,000 of the 3,500 applications had been approved and licences were being dispatched and several received.
The new dates cut six weeks from that runway. Licensed workshops now have about four months until January 29. That is exactly the minimum the District Kite Flying Association has said manufacturers need, and they must now supply a festival more than three times as long. Finished goods cannot leave workshops until trader licences are issued, which the administration has said it would happen almost a month before the festival began.
Kite makers told The Lahore Times that the price of cotton thread has jumped from about Rs2,000 to as much as Rs3,500 in two weeks. Kite paper, which is imported from China, and bamboo have also become more expensive, and poor-quality material is entering the market. None of these raw materials is covered by the licensing regime. Manufacturers blamed cash-rich investors for buying up stock early.
Craftsmen also said they have nowhere to store stock in small homes while goods cannot be moved. Some complained that inspection teams entered private rooms while women were present, and one manufacturer alleged that police demanded “expenses” from workshops.
Lahore Deputy Commissioner Captain (retd) Muhammad Ali Ijaz has made a No Objection Certificate (NOC) mandatory for anyone producing kite-flying material. He has said the administration will show zero tolerance for chemical-coated string and unapproved kite sizes. On September 12, he ordered assistant commissioners to speed up verification of manufacturers. He told The Lahore Times that kite materials were not essential commodities such as flour or sugar, but that action was possible if hoarding was reported. He asked people to lodge complaints through his office’s social media channels.
Lahore Police say action against unlicensed kite manufacturing and sales will continue regardless of the licensing timeline. The district administration has also banned the transport of kite-flying materials through courier companies.
District Kite Flying Association Chairman Khawaja Nadeem Saeed Wain has pressed for early licences, warning that manufacturers need at least four months to build adequate stock. He has also called for thread makers to be registered so that only law-compliant thread reaches the market, and for kite materials to be treated as price-controlled goods with a working complaints system.
The likely reason for the change is the calendar. Ramadan is expected to begin around February 8, 2027, which means the March dates would have fallen during the holy month. Moving the festival to late January avoids that clash. But extending it to 10 days at the same time changes the task for everyone involved.
For manufacturers, the six-month head start meant to prevent last year’s shortages has shrunk to about four months. Several of those weeks were lost to licence processing, and the remaining time must cover more than three times the demand. Unless raw-material prices are brought under control, the price spike the early portal was meant to prevent could return.
The gap between licensing and sales is now tight. Trader registration was planned for January or February, and it needs to be brought forward if licensed kites are to reach the market legally before January 29. Until then, any kite on sale is illegal, which is why the police crackdown continues even as the government promotes the festival.
The stakes are higher. Last year’s three-day festival was followed by 17 deaths. A 10-day festival means more than three times as many days of exposure to stray string, and the chief minister’s call for “better arrangements” will be judged against that record.
Changing the dates twice in under two months has also cost the government some credibility with a trade that plans its production around fixed dates. How quickly the administration issues trader licences and brings raw-material prices under control will decide whether Basant 2027 is remembered for its length or for its shortages.
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