Jaipur Literature Festival this year in hybrid mode after series of challenges

By Archana Sharma

Jaipur, March 7 (SocialNews.XYZ) Hailed as the 'greatest literary show on Earth', the Jaipur Literature Festival (JFF) 2022 has started in a new hybrid avatar and at a new venue.

The new avatar is a hybrid edition promising online and offline seasons and the new venue is Clarks Amer other than the Diggi Palace, which has been its official venue for years.

The Covid pandemic may have given a slight breather to the world from its subsequent waves, but the Ukraine-Russia war is keeping one and all worried. Sanjoy K. Roy, Managing director, Teamwork Arts speaking to IANS shared his concerns of the ongoing war and has confirmed that two or three speakers have already cancelled their visit to India amid the present tensions.

"These are uncertain times again and there are a couple of speakers who have cancelled their visit to India and hence we have kept plan B ready," he said.

Speaking on the Russia-Ukraine war, he said, "Such uncertain moments make a huge impact and this impact is definitely here. People are uncertain to travel, people are scared to travel with families fearing what if they get stuck. Earlier, we decided to organise the event digitally in January. We aimed to wind up the event in digital edition, but then everybody, especially people from Rajasthan kept calling to organise the programme offline too."

Hence, we postponed it and decided to organise in March in a hybrid avatar, said Roy.

It needs to be mentioned here that JLF has ensured both its on-ground magnificence as well as its virtual presence this year and is featuring eminent speakers showcasing its curated sessions on its virtual platform from March 5-14. The festival will also host its on-ground show from March 10-14 at the Clarks Amer.

Speaking on its continuous evolution, Roy said, "JLF was facing Covid challenges for the last two years and now comes this war. However, over the years, we have learnt to evolve and to keep going. After going digital, we are now coming in a hybrid avatar, which is one of the examples of evolving. In 2020, we managed to finish our edition and then Covid stuck, but we continued with our digital edition," he added.

Roy said, "Despite the ongoing uncertain times, the magnitude of the programming remains as astonishing as every year with over 400 speakers attending. The performers represent around 15 Indian and 20 international languages and over 20 nationalities as well as all the major literary awards ranging from the Nobel, the Booker, the Pulitzer, the Sahitya Akademi, the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature, the JCB Prize for Literature, etc.," he added.

Speaking on the changed venue, he said, "While some visitors are speaking about the large space, the regular international visitors are questioning why we moved away from Diggi Palace.

"It's true that the festival started as built heritage and hence they are missing it, but then the other fact is that the festival's soul is audience, although no one gives them credit, but then they are the ones who make stories by clogging together with writers who're heroes for them and get their pictures clicked; now this excitement cannot be killed and hence they are the real souls of the festival," he adds.

Roy further said that they have expanded the spectrum of offerings this season. "Primary one of the major focus areas is a series called 'The Urgency of Borrowed Time', which examines climate justice and environmental and ecological issues. Also there shall be music, dance, film and yes our very own literature along with theatre and film celebrities coming in large numbers. Basically we are representing art this time in a big way," he adds.

Source: IANS