Book lovers throng as Jeddah international fair kicks off

Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, emir of Makkah and adviser to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, on Thursday evening inaugurated the second edition of Jeddah International Book Fair at the Events Land in South Obhur. Thousands of book lovers, including many young Saudis, thronged the pavilions on Friday, the first day of the fair for visitors. The festival of reading fans, which returned to Jeddah in 2015 after a hiatus of nine years, provides an enthralling and exciting experience to all visitors and book-lovers, representing various segments of society, especially youngsters.

Prince Mishal Bin Majed, governor of Jeddah and chairman of the supreme committee for the Book Fair, Adel Al-Turaifi, minister of culture and information, several princes, senior government officials, diplomats, writers and cultural figures attended the inaugural ceremony.

After inaugurating the mega event, Prince Khaled honored three prominent figures in the Saudi media and publishing field. They are Muhammad Ali Hafez, a pioneer in printing and publishing and one of the founder publishers of Saudi Research and Publishing Co.; Muhammad Ali Olwan, renowned writer; and Fatina Shakir, a well-known writer advocating causes of Saudi women and the first editor-in-chief of Sayidaty magazine. He also presented mementos to the sponsors of the event.

The emir and other guests toured the different pavilions of the fair, designed as a platform for creativity and innovation, especially for young writers. Matthias J. Mitman, consul general of the United States in Jeddah, presented copies of a book “Grape Leaves: A Century of Arab American Poetry” to Prince Khaled, Prince Mishal and Al-Turaifi on the occasion.

The festival came as a realization of a big dream of Prince Khaled, who is also an eminent poet, avid painter and patron of arts, to organize such an international cultural event.

Speaking to reporters, Prince Mishal said that the opening of the fair translates into action the directives of the Saudi leadership to disseminate the culture of knowledge, science, arts and literature, since they are the major ingredients of social and cultural life. “The fair, featuring wide variety of cultural and literary programs, would be a qualitative leap in promoting the Kingdom’s cultural values and printing and publishing industry in Jeddah, the Bride of the Red Sea, which is also a meeting point of different cultures. The festival is expected to create a harmonized blend of cultural mobility that will enhance knowledge and boost cultural exchange,” he said.

Prince Mishal said a total of 450 publishing houses from 30 Arab, Islamic and other countries are participating in the fair, which is arranged on an area of 21,500 sq. meters. He said that a record number of 1.5 million titles are being showcased in the 11-day fair.

“There has been a substantial increase in the number of books and participating countries this year. In the first edition of the fair in 2015, around one million tiles were exhibited and there were only 24 countries participated,” he said adding that the exhibited books cover most of the branches of knowledge, including culture, literature, information technology, science, social life and economy.

Publishers from Pakistan, Oman, Germany and Malaysia are participating in the fair for the first time. Many renowned poets from the Arab world will attend the event ands several cultural and literary activities such as lectures, seminars, story-telling and poetry sessions, staging of dramas are being held on the sidelines of the fair. Two seminars on “visual and drama culture in the Kingdom,” and “copyright and Internet piracy” were held on Friday.

Other seminars will have a focus on topics such as “entertainment industry and the Saudi society’s need for it”, as well as “the role of books in combating terrorism and extremism”. Workshops on design packaging, painting and sculpture, and the future of publishing industry will be another major highlight.

The organizers have arranged six platforms where book lovers will get an opportunity to buy books, signed by their favorite authors, including novelists, story writers and poets who are present at the platform.

A total of 221 authors, including 106 women writers, are allowed to attend the book-signing ceremonies provided that they have fulfilled certain conditions. These conditions include permission from the Ministry of Culture and Information for the display of the book, and that the books are new editions and not included in the list of these signed during last year’s fair.

Renowned writer Halima Mizfer, who is also an official at the branch of Ministry of Culture and Information in Makkah region, will be the first writer to sign her book at the platform. The 12-year-old Majd Hatem Al-Rahan is the youngest writer to put in her signature. Fatina Shakir is another prominent writer to sign her books.

The organizers have made unprecedented and meticulous arrangements for the festival of reading, which is open daily from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. for visitors. A total of 100 touch-screen monitors have been made avaialable at the fair so as to enable readers to browse titles of books and location of the stalls where they are available. The visitors can have details of everyday’s cultural events from the website www.jeddahbookfair.com

The Jeddah traffic department has made elaborate arrangements to ease the traffic flow around the fair, which has parking facilities for 2,500 vehicles. More than 70,000 visitors are expected daily at the fair, and this number might go up over 100,000 during the weekends.