Getting set for the next!

Though literature buffs are still recovering from the Galle Literary Festival 2008 which took place at the Galle Fort from January 16 to 20, the organisers say they're already planning next year's event. "It takes 12, maybe even 18 months to get something like this off the ground," said Libby Southwell, Festival Director.

Fortunately, the team has plenty of good news to report. Ticket sales this year were even better than last year, with the Festival managing to draw quite a crowd - over a thousand people came on each of the four main festival days. It's no surprise that Vikram Seth, who proved to be particularly articulate, was one of the big draws of the festival. Gore Vidal, William Dalrymple and Alexander McCall Smith also drew in some of the biggest crowds.

Judging by the response, it would be safe to say that the organisers have found their magic formula. Explaining that they want above all to preserve the intimacy the festival offers, Libby said that they hope next year would be even better, but that it would definitely not be bigger.

"I predict we'll have more people," she said, adding that while they were hoping to have more fringe events and community projects in place, they were unlikely to have more than two parallel events running simultaneously, or to have more than a 100 participants. One thing is for certain - there are going to be plenty of takers.