LIT Fest: Experience the Joy of Reading through Music, Flicks, and Art
The word “book fair” conjures a familiar image of booths in exhibition halls and stacks of books from numerous publishers. Special talks with authors occupy the stages, and the venue itself is crowded with bookworms from all walks of life. This conventional version of the book fair is not exactly lavish or bursting with energy. And although there’s nothing wrong with that, a new event seeks to reinvent what it means to enjoy reading and change the way people see book fairs. LIT Fest, where book fair meets lifestyle, is happening on January 18-20th (Fri-Sun) at Museum Siam.
LIT Fest is not only a marketplace for books; there will be fun all-day activities for everyone. Music, art, plays, and others will be distributed among eight zones. In one of these zones is a showcase by 30 publishers such as Sommadhi, Solis, Sarakadee, Aan Italy (Alibooks.it), P.S., Salmon, a book, happening, and Gammayee (Gammemagie). They’ll present ideas and concepts from their books through booth designs. We’ll undoubtedly see settings like night bar, futuristic sci-fi city, glasshouse, and sashimi place on the courtyard of Museum Siam.
Art & Craft: There are two activities in this zone. ‘Book Factory’ lets you select your favorite excerpt from over 20 chapters of materials and turn it into a book; a unique book catered and edited by you, for only you. ‘Book Blind Date’ provides a space for you to introduce books you love (bring your own or buy some at the fest) to other readers on a blind date. You might just find a new book you simply can’t put down.
Music & Play: Enjoy live music from 15 artists throughout all three days. Performing at the museum’s courtyard are Chart Suchart, Poomjit, Plastic Plastic, Jeab Wattana, Tul Apartment Khunpa, and many more. There will also be two short plays inspired Animal Farm and The Cult of Monte Cristo.
Movies: The film screening is set on January 19-20th (Sat-Sun). One of the films, How to make a Book with Steidl, dives deep into the topic of book publishing. Others are a selection by Documentary Club: Memoir of War, Violette, and Burning. Stay after credits for a discussion on adapting books to motion pictures.
Meet The Writers: The zone provides three activities and a casual setting where you can meet, play board games, and chat with authors. In ‘LIT Poetry’, authors turn your story into a one-of-a-kind poem. You can have tea parties at ‘LIT Tea Time’ and discuss special topics with authors; queer love with Oat Montian, Chinese tales with Lao Chuan Hua page by Ruengrong Rungrasmi. Or chat with other readers about various books. ‘Board Game with Writers’ lets you play board games with authors who are fellow board game enthusiasts such as Kla Samutwanich, Tomorn Sukpreecha, and Panu Traiwech.
Additional zones include Talks, special talk with Museum Siam’s curator; Book Club, discuss books with famous Facebook pages: The People, Zhan Zhao Lao Rueng, Sataranarat Weimar, Kae Koei Aan Lem Nee Yang, The Paperless, and Aan Ork Siang. The last zone is reserved for Kids, a storytelling area for children age 3-10 where storytellers read out loud in a variety of styles. Arts and crafts activities allow kids to make mini storybooks and much more.
The best thing about LIT Fest is the free admission. Everyone can enjoy themselves at this event, whether they like reading or not. The activities and live music alone should make the weekend spent here worthwhile. And who knows? This new kind of book fair might be able to convince you to pick up a book.