There is far more to any large-scale celebration or festival than just going out and enjoying yourself. A carefully calculated plan of action and a detailed itinerary must be formulated with military precision if you are to make the most of your adventure. You could just turn up, with a crumpled programme and a rough idea of where lunch is served, but how much better it would be if you are well-prepared before you even step out of the house. At the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, we have an outstanding cast of world-class speakers, some hugely insightful sessions from the most respected authors and an international line-up that will leave no multicultural stone unturned. All well and good, but the problem for visitors — how to fit it all in?
I can truly say that the “Dubai Lit Fest”, as it is also lovingly known, is supported by an extraordinary team to ensure the best-loved and most interesting names from the world of books come to our city for the region’s premier literary event. They also perform miracles to ensure that the timings, the locations, the genres, the performances, the signings and much, much more are mixed and matched in a Houdini-like act of fourth dimension escapology. The rest is up to you.
One way you could proceed would be to identify your key targets, establish an ETA, cross-reference timings with other potential candidates and allow for coffee breaks. Or ... you could just make sure you know what’s going on and try to see as many favourites as you can fit in.
Personally, I like to check the festival programme on the website for what’s on each day, then select the sessions I can’t afford to miss. Next, I note where I have a gap and then choose an event, where I may not know the author, or have read the book. It could be on a topic that interests me, such as culture shock, or health, or current events. I have found over the years that those sessions always surprise and delight me, so please step out of your comfort zone — you won’t regret it!
If you are living in the UAE, check out a session or two that is in Arabic. Simultaneous translation is provided for all the main sessions, so you can take advantage of broadening your understanding of the Arab World through literature.
Fittingly, with this year’s theme of ‘Journeys’, visitors to the festival will need to navigate the sessions, but what wonderful dilemmas they face. Is Jeffrey Archer, who has sold 275 million copies in 97 countries in more than 37 languages, a must? But then what about Eric Van Lustbader, one of the most respected popular fiction writers for the past 40 years, including ten of the Bourne series? Then there is Captain Abdullah Mohammad Al Saadi, general coordinator of the police stories initiative at Dubai Police, where real crime cases have been converted into short stories. Or Ben Miller. Or Ebrahim Farghali. Or Lucy Hawking. Or Raymond Khoury. Or ... Or ...
For anyone who has not been to a literary festival other than Dubai, I should point out that we have an extremely large, extremely busy event. It is not an ‘average’ lit fest, it is one of the most exciting, dynamic and bustling literary events in the world. Our schedules are packed, our space is vast and the calibre of our guests is phenomenal. I am extremely proud to say that there is nothing ordinary about our event, which makes it all the more difficult to advise as to which is the best way to make the most of it.
One extremely valuable asset we have to help you with is the duration. The festival spans two weekends, which should make things considerably easier.
One of our returning guests is the cryptic crossword genius Peter Dale, whose outstanding sessions in the past proved to be real show-stoppers. Having spent 25 years teaching Mathematics at Dubai College, it is Peter’s logic that we need in order to optimise our time at this year’s ‘Lit Fest’. Some ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking that can rearrange the mazes of our minds and help us decipher the cryptic clues. And for anyone who may still be unsure about the sheer pace of our wonderful event, Peter assures me that ‘festival’ is an anagram of Live Fast.
Isobel Abulhoul is OBE, CEO and trustee of the Emirates Literature Foundation and director of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.
