Basant history: how Lahore's spring kite festival began, was banned and came back

Platts' Urdu dictionary defines basanti as yellow, 'the colour of spring blossoms, such as those of the mustard-plant'. Tahir Kamran adds that yellow stood for a good harvest and the strengthening sun. In Lahore that has meant yellow kurtas, scarves and dupattas, and in Ranjit Singh's day, yellow turbans for his soldiers.

Later writers describe Mughal emperors watching kites wheel above the ramparts of Lahore Fort, and a Mughal-period miniature from the 18th century shows a royal woman flying a kite. Lahore's scholars are careful, though: no record shows when kite flying began in the city, or when Lahore became the centre of Basant.

The Sikh era is better documented. Ranjit Singh formalised Basant at his court: he dressed in yellow and flew kites from palace rooftops, and for 10 days the city celebrated with swings, drums (dhol) and kite contests greeted with cries of bo kata. Lahore, Amritsar and Kasur became the towns most linked with the festival.

Tahir Kamran describes Basant as the moment Lahore's rooftops stopped being private and became shared platforms, with kite makers, string dyers, musicians and food sellers all living off the season. Mochi Gate, one of the Walled City's old gates, became the best-known market for kites and string.

• Teams and masters: from the 1980s, Walled City kite fighters formed teams (dhara) led by masters (ustad), and the Kite Flying Association, founded in 1982, wrote rules for matches judged by a senior flyer, the khalifa.
• Night Basant: families also took to the roofs after dark, flying white and light-coloured kites that show up against the night sky.
• A city festival: before the ban, Basant had become a major attraction for foreign visitors, who came to Lahore for its kites, music and food.

The trouble grew with the competition. Fiercer kite fights brought stronger lines, and some string makers turned to metal wire, now banned, which caused accidents and electrocutions; loose string across roads cut motorcyclists. Punjab passed a kite-flying prohibition ordinance in 2001, and after deaths at the 2004 festival the Supreme Court acted against kite flying in 2005.

A two-day reprieve in 2007 ended in tragedy. The Punjab government allowed Basant only on 24 February 2007 and 25 February 2007, and at least 10 people were killed by stray bullets, sharpened twine, electrocution and falls. That year the government banned kite flying across Punjab, and the ban held until 2026.

An ordinance of 1 December 2025 and the Punjab Regulation of Kite Flying Act 2025, passed on 24 December 2025, replaced the 2001 prohibition with a regulated system. When the festival came, families crowded the rooftops of the Walled City, flying kites and shouting bo kata, and Mochi Gate's lanes were packed with buyers.

None of those deaths was caused by kite string. Most were falls from rooftops, and the 2027 rules now require walls at least 3.5 feet high around any roof used for flying.