Dubai: How Emirates Literature Festival is spreading love for reading

Online conversations around books and reading in the UAE grew by 7 per cent compared to 3 per cent in the virtual space worldwide, revealed the director of the Emirates Literature Festival in an exclusive interview with Khaleej Times.

“The percentage in the UAE is more than double the global average, and that is remarkable and an optimistic sign,” said Ahlam Bolooki on a busy Day 1 of the festival, while speaking about a Mapper360 report by insights partner Four MENA - commissioned by the foundation last year - which identifies key trends in the literary landscape across the UAE and globally.

The director of the Emirates Festival of Literature, which opened at its new home at Habtoor City Hotels on Thursday, says: “The festival is playing a pivotal role in inculcating a love for the written and spoken word in the UAE.

“The prime objective is spreading a love for words and reading, so that people can be lovers of reading for life. Once you find a love for reading, it will stay with you forever. The best thing once can do in life is to keep learning. We get one life, but when we are readers we get to live so many lives in one,” she said, urging everyone to make books their friend.

Speaking about this year’s theme: ‘Here comes the Sun’, she said: “We wanted to give the festival an optimistic theme so that we can use this platform as a positive step into brighter times. Last year we weren’t able to have international authors but this year they are back, and it’s a full programme with a diverse set of events.”

She said the move to the new canal-side location at the Habtoor City Hotels, was a creative decision to give the festival a new vibe. “The Habtoor Palace is wonderful venue that caters to everything we need. There are three hotels in the complex, there is a lot more variety for our audiences to have a better experience and plenty of F&B outlets here. We’ve also been hearing that it’s a lot more centrally-located and easily accessible for everyone,” she said.

Speaking about the challenges of drawing up such an extensive programme, Bolooki said: “Organising this festival is a complex job and this is my fourth festival now. In the first year I was observing and taking in as much as I could. In year two, I started to give my inputs and then year-on-year I’ve got the hang of planning a programme that appeals to all the nationalities who live in Dubai.

“A year and a half of research happens for every festival programme, promoting and dissecting it for audiences of all ages and nationalities. Then working to make sure that schools in the country benefit from it as much as possible from what we are doing here. That’s also a challenge. But once it all comes together, there is nothing more rewarding,” she said.

Bolooki said: “Every year we find it easier to have a higher caliber of authors and speakers because the festival is the largest celebration of the written and spoken word in the Arab world. We believe it ranks among the top 10 literary festivals in the world.”