On ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival 2019
Literature reflects society. As society travels and transcends, it's footprints get registered and reflected through contemporary art and writings. What happens in social contexts, how individual behavior changes over time, how experiences are registered in memory, what expectations get framed, how actions are primed, and how outcomes are influenced - all these questions and their responses change over time, depending on context and condition. Blessings and curses stay in the surrounding environment forming vibrations whereby affecting ultimate result. Imagination and creativity get corroborated accordingly.
We visited recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival 2019 and experienced the dominance of market forces everywhere. The way JLF has become a prominent brand among literature enthusiasts and market circles, has proven that product content is secondary to advertising, promotion and packaging. Past investments in JLF are reaping fruits that are as per effective business propositions. Once you are able to establish a brand by gradually investing in it through serving the customers - the value for their money, it can provide expected returns in long term. Big business houses show interest in associating their names with brands that add value to their outreach, recall and responsibility. It is an interesting market dynamics. Diggi Palace, where this festival is hosted; ZEE which is the title sponsor of the whole event, making it #ZEEJLF2019; Nexa is the major advertising partner; and host of great brands, make this festival kicking and running.
It seems that literature without market can not survive, at least our experience of visiting this fest tend to prove this point. Market in literature and literature in market significantly draw a licentious painting of present time. Contemporary art contemplates callous call from its candid appreciators and lands in the hands of the buyers who can afford it, lest comprehend its beauty.
In festivals of this kind literature has to be primary focus and market secondary. May be in the initial years of it's inception it might have been so, but the current version clearly depicts market as the primary focus. If the festival operates on the principle of business sustainability, it is on a right path. But if literature is it's primary concern, it has to change it's mode of operation and target balance between market and literature.
My general observation on looking at the common visitors on 27th Jan 2019 is that most of the visitors (around 70%) are from below the age of 30, Around 20% of the visitors might be above the age of 50 and rest, i.e., between the age of 30 and 50, are just 10%. Further I also feel may be just around 10-15% visitors might be really interested in literature, and for most of others, it is good social networking place allowing selfie-welfie photoshoots, celebrity screen spaces in the backgrounds, providing boastful literary ambiance and an aura of sublime positivism.
It is good that even if many are not interested in crude literature, but at least they are getting hooked to such festivals and are able to get closer to smell the taste of books, in the company of their authors. This new generation is market ready and the festival is providing them the opportunity to respond to all kinds of market forces. It is an excellent place for PR, promotion and publicity.
On the other location (Ravindra Manch, Ram Niwas Garden) in Jaipur itself, a Parallel Literature Festival is underway which is said to be the voice of progressive writers who want to counter the predominance of market forces by providing platform for writers and readers. We visited that place too but to our surprise it had the flavor of informal ambiance, but the crowd was just around double the number of guests, speakers and invitees. It has a long way to really become a voice of concerned literature enthusiasts.
We visited recently concluded Jaipur Literature Festival 2019 and experienced the dominance of market forces everywhere. The way JLF has become a prominent brand among literature enthusiasts and market circles, has proven that product content is secondary to advertising, promotion and packaging. Past investments in JLF are reaping fruits that are as per effective business propositions. Once you are able to establish a brand by gradually investing in it through serving the customers - the value for their money, it can provide expected returns in long term. Big business houses show interest in associating their names with brands that add value to their outreach, recall and responsibility. It is an interesting market dynamics. Diggi Palace, where this festival is hosted; ZEE which is the title sponsor of the whole event, making it #ZEEJLF2019; Nexa is the major advertising partner; and host of great brands, make this festival kicking and running. 
In festivals of this kind literature has to be primary focus and market secondary. May be in the initial years of it's inception it might have been so, but the current version clearly depicts market as the primary focus. If the festival operates on the principle of business sustainability, it is on a right path. But if literature is it's primary concern, it has to change it's mode of operation and target balance between market and literature.
It is good that even if many are not interested in crude literature, but at least they are getting hooked to such festivals and are able to get closer to smell the taste of books, in the company of their authors. This new generation is market ready and the festival is providing them the opportunity to respond to all kinds of market forces. It is an excellent place for PR, promotion and publicity.
On the other location (Ravindra Manch, Ram Niwas Garden) in Jaipur itself, a Parallel Literature Festival is underway which is said to be the voice of progressive writers who want to counter the predominance of market forces by providing platform for writers and readers. We visited that place too but to our surprise it had the flavor of informal ambiance, but the crowd was just around double the number of guests, speakers and invitees. It has a long way to really become a voice of concerned literature enthusiasts.
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