Jaipur Literature Festival 2023

The Jaipur Literature Festival is one of the biggest literary festivals that allows you to interact with a diverse mix of renowned writers, thinkers, leaders, entertainers and all the eminent personalities from around the world. This prominent literary festival is held in January every year in the pink city of India-Jaipur. in January every year in the pink city of India-Jaipur. With a modest beginning in 2006, JLF as it is proudly called, today witnesses around 1 lakh attendees annually in its five days event.

Jaipur Literature Festival 2023 - Dates

JLF takes place in late January, usually in the third week of every year. In 2023, the festival is scheduled between the 19th and 23rd of January.

Venue of the Jaipur Literature Festival 

The Royal palace cum the heritage hotel named The Diggi Palace in Jaipur hosts this festival yearly. However, with the increasing popularity and the number of events, the festival extends to Clarkes Amer, the Amer Fort, and the Hawa Mahal among 10 other locations.

Jaipur Literature Festival - Registration and Entry Fee

Entry to this festival is free if you have pre-registered your seat, but you have to pay around INR 300 for on the spot registration. For that, all you need to do is log on to the festival's official website and register yourself. After registration, you will get an email or a message that you will have to show at the registration desk at the entrance.

For entry into the musical night, separate passes are available that you need to get from the website. Remember, the tickets are sold on a first-come-first-serve basis.

What Happens at the Festival? - Speakers & Schedule

A literary extravaganza, JLF is a hub wherein you not only freely engage in a conversation or a debate with over 100 speakers but dance to the tunes of around 100 musicians. The speakers of the Jaipur Literature Festival include personalities such as Gulzar, Shobha de, Jamaica Kincaid, Helen Fielding, Shashi Tharoor, Javed Akhtar and many more from various fields to increase your insight on different issues. While musicians like Kailash Kher, Roohani sisters and Indian folk bands such as the Indian Ocean light up the musical stage.

There are books reading and poetry reading sessions that take place simultaneously along with other events for you to choose the one you want to be a part of. Also, you can always go and treat yourself with books of the speakers and get the books signed in the meet-and-greet sessions with them.

Interestingly, every year the fest focuses on a theme. Like the 2019 JLF focused on the issues of genetics, artificial intelligence, climate change, the 17th general elections and social movements such as #METOO etc.

Further, other cultural activities are organized to keep you entertained during your stay at the festival. Added to it all is the bonus of shopping with a range of stalls with anything and everything especially food and handicrafts.

With all these things happening in one place, we are sure you want to know more about this festival and be a part of The Jaipur Literature Festival.

About JLF - History of the World’s Largest Free Literary Festival

Starting in 2006 with only a limited number of authors including Namita Gokhale, Shobha de, William Dalrymple and 15 others, JLF was attended by only 100 participants. Over the years, the literary extravaganza grew in significance and fame with many prestigious names from various fields participating in the festival adding to its huge success.

However, this journey is not without difficulties. In 2012, The Jaipur Literature Festival entered in controversy when Salman Rushdie cancelled his all India tour over threats of assassination with the release of Satanic Verses among the others that have created problems for the festival. Yet, the festival stood in its glory and entered a new path in 2015 with organising the fest in Colorado, USA, and Southbank, London.

In the present times, this once small festival has spread its wings into many different locations and made its mark as “The world’s largest free literary festival” as The Mail calls it.

How to Reach the Venue

As the festival approaches, it is important to sort how you will travel to the literary fest. The pink city of India is most accessible from Delhi from where you can look for various options.

·        By air: If you directly want to reach the city, the most feasible option is to fly to the nearest airport of Jaipur that is in Sanaganer. From there, tourists can book a taxi or bus to JLF.

·        By land: You can also explore to travel from Delhi by road. There are various options available to travel to one of the primary tourist destinations in Rajasthan. The first option is to rent a car which will be there for you all the time. It takes about 6 hours to reach the destination. Apart for that, The Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation (RSRTC) also runs various buses from Delhi to Jaipur at regular intervals.

·        By Train: Another means to go Jaipur is to book a train. Almost every train route has a stopover here. There are three main stations with the main Jaipur station, the Gandhinagar station, and the Durgapur station. If you travel by train, then you need to book an auto-rickshaw, a car or a bus for The Jaipur Literature Festival. 

What more do you need? A festival that celebrates the freedom of expression and speech where you can learn from the leaders and grow as a person. A collective space to celebrate all art, literature, and culture to please the soul that is so attached to the dream world of books. An extravaganza that has been called “The most fabulous literary love-fest on the planet” by author and historian, Simon Schama.