Like any other festival, JLF can get overwhelming, confusing and borderline frustrating. We’ve made all the rookie mistakes, spent more time navigating than attending a session and been an indelible part of many a human tsunami.
Maybe we’re making a literature festival sound more dramatic that it probably should! But, we shared our own personal experiences and (in)experiences and decided to put them down to help you avoid making the same mistakes here.
Although, the free online registrations are closed now to prevent the festival from getting too crowded, you can still go to the registration desk at the festival and pay a nominal fee to get in.
JLF has six venues - Baithak, Char Bagh, Samvaad, Front Lawns, Mughal Tent, and the Durbar Hall. As soon as you walk in, your first stop should be the information desk. Arm yourself with a map and programme schedule; Consider them your lifelines for the entire festival.
Sessions run parallel across six venues, with a fifteen-minute gap between each one. Everything runs like clockwork. We suggest leaving a session ten minutes prior to it ending if you’re switching venues. Seats fill up fast and the entourage of press at each session makes standing at the back as good as not attending.
With over 250 speakers and authors and multiple sessions on each day, it can be overwhelming for the best of us. We suggest shortlisting preferred sessions and talks beforehand, so you have an idea of how you want to spend your days (and you can map out your routes to switch talk venues!)
A useful tip about the weather: The festival has hot, sunny days. We’re not sure if it’s the temperature or body heat from tens of thousands of people, but dress with that in mind. Evenings, however, tend to get chilly. We recommend layers rather than heavy jackets or just T-shirts.
Also, note that mostly everyone, including speakers and authors, dress casual and comfortable, yet chic. You may want to keep that in mind while packing for the trip.
The JLF music stage is held at another venue, Clarks Amer, and has a fantastic line-up (this one is ticketed and sells out fast, so buy beforehand). It is normally priced at INR 750 per day.
There will be retail bookstores/kiosks in Diggi Palace. You can buy featured, launched and JLF authors' books. For author signings, buying at the venue makes sense unless you’ve arrived at JLF, books in tow.
Although the festival is free, you have the option of registering as a delegate either for a day or for the entire festival. The delegate badge entitles you to lunch and dinner with featured speakers, sponsors, publishers, festival directors and organisers, access to the music stage, goody bags, and local transport and accommodation at special rates.
The delegate tent is different to the registration tent and is located opposite it; It is situated at the first entry point of the festival.
Although not an organisational defect, the bathrooms leave much to be desired considering the sheer volume of the population using them. The silver lining is, you’ll find bathrooms that aren’t on wheels and carry the underlying threat of tipping over. We recommend you keep handy rolls of toilet paper and bottles of sanitiser.
If you haven't booked a place yet, you might find some trouble in finding a reasonably priced place to stay. However, if budget is not an issue, then you should book your rooms in one of the bigger hotels right away.