Book festival draws bigger crowds

COIMBATORE: The fourth edition of the Coimbatore Book Festival, which began on July 20, saw around 50,000 visitors till Thursday, said the festival’s organisers. They said footfalls had seen a rise compared to last year.
The festival saw around 80,000 visitors last year, said S Soundararajan, chairperson of the festival. “This year we expect 1 lakh visitors.We expect footfalls to go up in the coming days,” he said. The festival will go on till Sunday.
The general response to the book festival this year has been better than the previous years, said Soundararajan. The festival has been growing every year. “There has been very good response for the evening programmes we conduct at the venue,” he said.
Events such as a story-telling session by writer Bava Chelladurai and a play by students from PSG College of Arts and Science were well attended, he said. “People attend these events as they are very engaging. The story telling and play were interactive. Around 400 people attended these events,” he said. Competitions for school and college students too saw a good response, he added.
The festival had allied initiatives such as competitions for industry employees. An elocution contest for employees and a villupaattu performance by industry employees have also been scheduled.
Apart from literature, the festival has events from other disciplines. A talk titled ‘Medicine in Literature’ by popular siddha medicine practitioner G Sivaraman will be held on Friday. An elocution contest for industry workers is titled, ‘Which helps industrial growth, planning or execution?’ The festival also had book releases and musical events.