FGLF won’t happen next year
View(s):The Fairway Galle Literary Festival (FGLF), which is one of the most anticipated annual literary events in South Asia, won’t be held next year as main sponsors have backed out, organisers say.
The Fairway Galle Literary Festival was partnered by SriLankan Airlines and Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) as main sponsors. “We got 40 business class air tickets from the national carrier to bring down authors as invitees mainly from Europe and US$100,000 from SLTPB. It wasn’t possible for us to organise the next festival as we didn’t have enough funds,” an official told the Business Times.
Authors were attending FGLF free of charge, hence the free business class tickets. He said that the sponsors backed out this year and they had to withdraw from their reserves. “As a result we don’t have enough funds to organise it,” he added. Since first launching in 2007, FGLF was held five times in the precincts of the Galle Fort, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Lit Fest, draws part of its charm from this site and had sessions and performances involving writing, music, history, drama, travel and painting sessions.
(DEC)