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