The third edition of the Krithi International Book and Knowledge Festival, organised by the Department of Cooperation and Sahithya Pravarthaka Co-operative Society (SPCS), will be held at Marine Drive from February 6 to 16.
Announcing this here on Tuesday, Kadakampally Surendran, Minister for Co-operation, Devaswom and Tourism, said that the upcoming edition would be among the largest book fairs in India with a literary and knowledge festival, cultural programmes and a food festival on its sidelines and the aim was to achieve a sales figure of ₹20 crore.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will open the fest.
A total of 75,000 sq ft area will be used including a fully air-conditioned pavilion of 46,000 sq ft area for the book fest. From India and abroad, Krithi-2020 is expected to have more than 150 publishers across some 230 stalls.
Under a ‘Book for Each Child’ scheme, Krithi-2020 will give away book coupons worth ₹1.5 crore to students across the State through co-operative institutions. For this edition too, there will be a separate section for children’s books. It will also have reading and poetry writing competitions for students and will have magic shows every evening.
For adults, Krithi has already announced a short film and photography competition, Mr. Surendran said. There will also be separate exhibitions of yesteryear photographs of Kerala towns and a historical exhibition of SPCS, which is on its 75th year now.
Knowledge Festival
Krithi Knowledge Festival, to be held from February 12 to 16, is expected to be attended by eminent writers and scholars from outside Kerala including Pratiba Ray, Byrappa, Siva Reddy, Sundar Sarukkai, A.R. Venkatachalapathy, P. Sainath and Badri Narayan in addition to eminent writers and scholars in Kerala.
The Art Festival, from February 7 to 16, to be held from 7 p.m. to 9.30 p.m. on dall days, will have performances by Kasaragod Yaksharanga (Yakshagana, Feb 7); drama by KPAC (Feb 8); Kathakali by PSV Natyasamgham Kottakkal (Feb 9); folk songs by Karinthalakkoottam (Feb 10); fusion music by Lovely Janardhanan (Feb 11); Soofi music by Ashraf Hydrose (Feb 12); double thayampaka by Kalloor Unnikrishnan and Poroor Unnikrishnan (Feb 13); Kathaprasangam by Basanthkumar Sambasivan (Feb 14); Carnatic music concert by M.K. Sankaran Namboothiri (Feb 15) and Ganamela by Kollam Abhijith (Feb 16).
In the Food Festival, there will be 12 food stalls of various varieties spread across more than 10,000 sq ft.
