Crowds brave cold to attend day three of Dhaka Lit Fest

The first and second day of the 10th edition of Dhaka Lit Fest attracted huge crowds, but the third day was the busiest. 

Defying the biting cold and foggy weather on Saturday, hundreds of writers, academics, researchers, journalists, artists and book lovers came together to experience the biggest literary event of Bangladesh from all across the globe. 

The venue, Bangla Academy, was crowded with children, and colourful food stalls, book stalls and many other attractions. 

Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Saturday's programs kicked off with spiritual songs by Gurdwar at 9am.

There were several sessions from 10am to 11am – Coke Studio Bangla: The Story (Buno, Abeer Rajbeen, Gousul Alam Shaon with Warda Ashraf), Birangona (Firdous Azim with Elora Halim Chowdhury), On an Apollo 11: Fly me to the moon (Uthso Nandy), Hope On the Horizon (Onjali Q Rauf with Anjum N Choudhury), and Adventures of Mom and Me (Rafiath Rashid Mithila and Ayra Tehreem Khan), among others.

Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Later, several other sessions with notable personalities including Tilda Swinton, Sarah Gilbert, Amitav Ghosh, Abdulrazak Gurnah, Anisul Hoque, Salimullah KhanShaheen Akhtar, Kaiser Haq, Saad Z Hossain, Dominic Ziegler, Florence Noiville, Sudeep Chakravarti, Sarah Churchwell, Asaduzzaman Noor, Muhammed Zafar Iqbal and others took place at different auditoriums of the historic Bangla Academy. 

The children at Dhaka Lit Fest also enjoyed a puppet show at the Nazrul Stage by the Royal Bina Puppet Show. 

Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

The four-day event is set to end on Sunday. 

Dhaka Lit Fest is featuring winners of the Pulitzer, International Booker, Neustadt International, and PEN/Pinter prizes, as well as the Prix Médicis, Academy Award, Windham-Campbell Prize, Albert Medal, Waterstones Children's Book Prize, and Aga Khan Award.

Bangladesh's biggest event on world literature and culture began on Thursday with around 500 writers, poets, performers, intellectuals, journalists and internationally acclaimed prize-winning speakers taking part in over 170 sessions over four days.

Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Children up to 12 years of age will not need any ticket to enter. People can complete their registration by visiting the event website and entering their names, age, gender, occupations, mobile numbers, and email. After entering all the information correctly, they can select their ticket categories.

Mahmud Hossain Opu/Dhaka Tribune

Meanwhile, there is good news for students. They can buy tickets for Tk200 each. If students buy tickets for four days together, it will cost them Tk500.

A four-day VIP ticket will be available for Tk10,000. Free parking facilities and access to the DLF special lounge with a VIP ID card (including lunch) will be available under the patron category.