Lahore’s centuries old walled city has become the official & unofficial center of Basant’s Patang Bazi. Some old havelis [villas] of Gowalmandi and Heera Mandi, in particular the "Barood Khana" Haveli or the old Gunpowder Villa near the old fort & Badshahi Mosque, have been renovated with great care by their owners .Yusuf Salahuddin & Iqbal Hussain.

Multinationals companies [Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Emirates Bank, and Pizza Hut] have jumped in to participate and market their products via Kite flying as the ideal medium for marketing. Buy a Pepsi or a Coke and you get a free kite to fly with their logo during Basant. A Lahori jokes that Pepsi, Coke, McDonalds are battling for control of our air space. Meanwhile the Lahore High Court threw out a case saying that Basant was unIslamic. The parks [in particular the Race Course park] of Lahore are filled with kite flyers carrying their precious kites in their waterproof bags. The streets , parks and the roof tops especially are filled with cries and cheers of "Bo Kata" or Kite down, followed by drums rolls .

The French sent two teams to participate in 2001. One called "meteors" from Brittany and another from the school of fine arts from Aix Provence. Later a joint agreement was signed between the Lahore school of Fine Arts and the French school, with a documentary on the Basant being aired on a French TV channel. The Emirates Bank invited their 500 high net worth customers in a Basant bash on the rooftop of the Pearl Continental hotel on The Mall. Included was a music band called "Nexus" and a food festival including the candyfloss man for kids.

Kamran Lashari [ Previous Director, Parks & Horticulture Society and a senior Civil Service officer now working as chairman CDA] has been the major creative force in making this old Basant festival into a modern day business venture . The official venue for the event is the old city’s Delhi gate " Shahi Hamaam" [ or the Royal Bath] and the date was 17th February. The Chandigarh "Tribune" reported that about 10,000 tourists specifically came for the Basant event [ Jashne Baharan or Spring Festival ] in 2001 and generated about Rs. 8 billion [US $160 million] with employment for about 10,000 people. Special trains & flights were scheduled for Basant in Lahore .

The havelis and the roof top real-estate of the old walled city of Lahore have exploded in value as a result. Lahore, which was once renowned for its fashion and style, is beginning to recover its lost glory as the cultural capital of Punjab. The trend was started some years [around 1990] ago by a grand renovation of the old walled city under a World Bank Project. The Pakistan Government did much to implement and carry out this project successfully. Individuals living inside the walled city are proud of their history and the famous artist [National School of Arts] Iqbal Hussain renovated his haveli near the Badshahi mosque by converting his studio into an exotic "Cuckoo’s Cafe" where you can sample the inner city’s specialty foods.