Chennai Book Fair welcomed around 1 Lakh Visitors on weekend, even after election polls

on Feb 22, 2022

Despite election polls, Chennai Book Fair draws around 1 lakh footfalls over the weekend. It was a pleasant surprise for the organizers. The city had local body polls on Saturday still it managed to witness such a big turnover.

“Even on Saturday, we sold 25,000 entry passes through the ticket counter and a little more than that on Sunday. Apart from that there were about 5,000 entry passes sold online and there were those with free passes too,” said the additional joint secretary of BAPASI, S Subramaniam.

There were doubts among the publishers themselves about the public turnover to the event as they missed the Pongal window this year too, however, they received a big response over the weekend and have raised hopes.

“We were surprised the last weekend. During the day, the patronage was minimal, but by the evening, the place was crowded as much as it would have been during the Pongal holiday,” said Subramaniam. On weekdays, however, the turnover had been subpar and the organizer BAPASI (Book Publishers and Sellers Association of South India), hopes for a better turnout in the better days.

“During the Pongal, the number of government holidays is more and public too are in a festive spirit with Christmas and New Year preceding the event and at least one day is spent by families by visiting the fair,” said G Olivannan of Emerald publishers.