It all started when one of the organisers of the insanely popular Karachi Eat Festival claimed that the new, Karachi Tea Festival, was falsely advertising their event to be affiliated to the organizers of the former, which had led to the public being misled into attending the event, thinking it was by the organizers of KEF.
This was posted on various public forums, such as Karachi Food Diary (with 15,000 active members) and Karachi Tea Festival’s page itself
Perhaps it started long before that, when Karachi Tea Festival was announced in the first place. Many supporters (as well as some of the organizers) of KEF were of the opinion that this festival sounds a little too similar, perhaps even trying to copy the success of KEF. However, things got out of hand when one organizer publicly declared on various forums on Facebook that KTF was aligning their name to their event, trying to pose as the organisers of KEF. How did the organizers come to such a conclusion?
Here is the post that led to all this brouhaha
This screenshot was shared by the organizers of Karachi Eat Festival
The post has added the two names together, perhaps leading to the confusion faced by KEF organizers. However, what is clear is that the Facebook page that shared this post is an entertainment website, not related to Karachi Tea Festival in anyway. We approached them for a comment and they were unavailable. In fact, this post has now been deleted from their Facebook page as well.
We therefore got in touch with the organizers of Karachi Tea Festival to clear the air: “We are in no way affiliated to Karachi Eat Festival. Our official marketing has not associated their name to ours in any way. Metronome is a third party and we have not said any such thing to them. If someone else has done misreporting then how is it our fault?” In fact, KTF organizers are now furious that their name is being maligned on social media.
“Karachi Eat Festival was very successful, and their team are the pioneers in this, no doubt. But please, we are trying to build a different brand, specifically targeted to tea lovers. We have not stolen anything.”
However, the confusion caused by KEF on public forums has not been retracted yet. We are still waiting for a response from their team.
