'Very low turnout' on Feb 21 morning at Amar Ekushey Book Fair

“We thought people would pay their tributes at the Shaheed Minar and then visit the book fair. But it hasn’t happened," one publisher says

Typically, people who come to pay their respects at the Central Shaheed Minar on the morning of Feb 21, visit the Amar Ekushey Book Fair afterwards. But on Friday, the fair was nearly deserted.

The fair opened its door to the public at 7am, but no visitors were seen inside as of 9am. Some stalls even closed due to the absence of a crowd.

Jhumjhumi Publishers Sales Manager Rifa Tamanna Islam told bdnews24.com: "I reached the stall at 7:20am. No one was here. Before coming to the fair, I went to the Shaheed Minar and found fewer people this year."

However, she said very few people showed up after 9am, adding that only two books were sold at the Jhumjhumi Publishers stall as of 10:30am.

Dolon, a publishing house for children’s books, got a fair stall for the first time this year.

"I never expected the book fair to be so empty on the morning of Feb 21. I expected many people to visit the fair after paying their respects at the Shaheed Minar. But it hasn’t happened. I came around 8am. Since then, I’ve been standing watch over an empty fair,” said Kamal Mustafa, owner of Dolon.

The publisher also said there were no sales at the Dolon stall in the morning. He hoped that people would show up as the day rolled.

"I expect a better turnout of visitors in the afternoon; more bookworms will show up," said Kamal.

The public relations department of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair said the fair will remain open from 7am to 9pm on Friday, which also marks Language Martyrs Day and International Mother Languag Day.

The month-long book fair that kicked off on Feb 1 has not yielded great sales for publishers, said Hossain Shaheed Majnu, publisher of Banglanama Publishing House.

He told bdnews24.com: "Usually, sales go up from the first of [the Bengali month of] Falgun every year. The first week of the book fair sees lower sales. Publishers look forward to Basanta Utsab and Ekushey February [to do brisk business]. Besides, weekends bring more visitors and better sales as well."

“This year, the Basanta Utsab and Ekushey February both fell on Fridays. Hence, there were no additional benefits over the weekends. Also, the last 20 days of the book fair, sales overall have not been good.”

As many as 1,084 units were allocated to 708 publishing houses at the book fair this year. The figures were 946 units for 642 houses last year. A total of 99 organisations set up their stalls at the Bangla Academy premises and 609 at the Suhrawardy Udyan premises.

There are 37 pavilions, including one at Bangla Academy, and 36 in the Suhrawardy Udyan.

The Little Magazine Chattar has been set up near the open stage of the Suhrawardy Udyan. At least 130 little magazines have their stalls there.

In addition, 74 organisations have been allocated 120 stalls in the Shishu Chattar. Last year, 68 organisations had 109 stalls at the location.