For fans of the Jaipur Literature Festival, there is nothing quite like it. Many designed their January calendars around it. The festival has gone well beyond writers and their fans adoringly taking in their words in picturesque settings in Diggi Palace, the venue since the festival started. From political discussions to celeb spotting, musical evenings, tackling issues of the publishing sector, sampling culinary offerings, a smorgasbord of cultural experiences, exclusive dinners/street-side wonders, even the occasional controversy, Jaipur for those five days has a distinct energy. The hotels are full, festival delegates can be seen thronging the ‘pink city’ for monument-ing or market-ing, even riding hot air balloons. Festival attendees have even lodged at the city’s railway station – just to be able to hear their favourite authors – for free. In 15 years, JLF has established an identity few can match. Just like much else, Covid-19 of course impacted this sprawling festival. Come edition 2022, expect changes. The biggest change for many will be the venue – a move that had been in the works – from Diggi Palace to Clarks Amer, more to the south of the city. The festival is also being presented in a hybrid format for the first time. Along with five days of the festival as usual, on ground, there are also five preceding days of virtual sessions. Hybrid is here to stay, points out Sanjoy K. Roy, festival producer & MD, Teamwork Arts. “We created this large digital community by accident. The 2021 edition had 27.8 million people logging in. The entire festival is digital; so, we have had to reformat some of the things we do. Digital is free to view across the world, and has a fabulous programme – and much of what we do on ground will go digital, but not everything. It’s a full festival. It runs for five days. And, we have foolishly decided to extend it for another five days. So, instead of a smaller festival, we’ve ended up having a bigger festival – also, with a postponement and, now, with a war.” For William Dalrymple, author and Festival Co-director, “The pandemic has been hard for everyone but literary festivals have faced existential challenges to their survival. Now, we are back and are thrilled to bring our beloved Festival back to the hallowed soil of Jaipur.” The festival not only got postponed from January due to Omicron, it has also become concurrent to a war that has shaken up the world. The festival addresses the situation. “We have got two sessions – one of them on the Ukraine conflict itself,” says Roy. “We will be showing photographs of pre-war Ukraine by someone who visited earlier this year – as a tribute and a message that the war is definitely wrong. The other is going to be a session on public diplomacy. We are commemorating 50 years of the 1971 war.”