From Lit Fest to Arts Fest

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A popular festival pastime: Browsing through the books on offer and left and below guests at the opening reception

The ninth Fairway Galle Literary Festival began in relaxed style on the evening of Wednesday, January 24 with a reception for authors, organizers and sponsors at the Fairway Pavilion. The internationally acclaimed Bangladeshi band Chirkutt, here at the festival courtesy the High Commission for Bangladesh entertained with their lively music.

Founder of the Fairway Galle Literary Festival Geoffrey Dobbs expressed his happiness at the success of the festival. “Nine years ago, we started with a few authors and it was a great success and now it’s metamorphosed into an arts festival rather than a literary festival. We have international and local authors and we are very happy to have them,” he said.

Group CEO of Fairway Holdings Imal Fonseka also feels that the event has been a great success – as seen through the authors. “The testament to success in this year particularly is the collection of such an amazing set of authors from all over the world; it’s indeed a privilege to be in your company, and kudos for the team for getting such an amazing collection of authors here today that makes this festival such a landmark event in this country and such an opportunity for lovers of art and literature,” he said.

Festival Curator Jill Macdonald said she hoped festival-goers would enjoy the line-up. “This is an arts festival and we have all kinds of different aspects of the arts. We’re really looking forward to it and I hope you enjoy the festival,” she said.

Today, Sunday is the final day of the festival.