Ekushey Boi Mela, the most prestigious book fair in the country, will see a few changes in the layout of stalls and other areas this year, aiming to be more accommodating to the visitors.
“The fair will see a fair bit of changes this year. We have decided to bring the changes to ensure the book lovers’ comfort in browsing the stalls. It will be bigger and more vibrant fair this year,” said Dr Jalal Ahmed, secretary of the book fair committee, yesterday.
Scheduled to begin on February 1, this year’s fair marks a special occasion as the 60th founding anniversary of Bangla Academy, which was on December 3, will be observed at the fair as well, sources said.
The daily visiting time will be slightly changed this year; the fair will be open half an hour earlier, at 2:30pm, and will be open for visitors until 8:30pm.
The layout of the stalls and pavilions will be different as well. The Children’s Corner, which used to be near the Botomul area in Bangla Academy, will be moved to Suhrawardy Udyan.
All the publishing houses will also be placed on the Suhrawardy Udyan side of the fair, Jalal told the Dhaka Tribune.
For the first time, the Mukto Moncho in the Udyan will be included in the fair perimeter where cultural programmes will be staged throughout the month-long fair.
“We are also planning to hold an international poetry festival this year,” Jalal said.
Around 800 publication houses and institutions have applied for allocations of stalls and pavilions in the fair this year.
This year, 364 stalls and pavilions have been allotted to publishers as well as other organisations, ie media and NGOs. Last year, the number of stalls and pavilions was 351.
The placements were allocated through a lottery at Bangla Academy on Tuesday, Jalal said.
Last year’s Ekushey book fair saw a record number of new books – around 3,700 – published, with sales estimated at around Tk22 crore.