Book festival starts on Saturday

Book festival starts on Saturday

JAKARTA: Over 25,000 book titles from over 150 publishers will
be on sale at a book festival organized by the Jakarta branch of
the Indonesian Publishers Association (Ikapi) at the Bung Karno
sports complex from June 25 to July 3.

Organizing committee head Antonius Riyanto said on Monday that
various educational programs would be held each day of the
festival.

They include creative writing courses, story-telling
workshops, book discussions, various kinds of contests and art
performances.

He said several celebrities, including Olga Lydia, Novia
Ardhana and Nicholas Saputra, would grace the event.

Children and teenagers are the focus of this year's book
festival.

"Children and teenagers make up the majority of book readers
in the country," Antonius said.

He said the event would serve as an arena for information
exchange for book lovers about the development of books for
children and teenagers as well as books written by young people.

He said discounts of up to 70 percent would be offered --JP