This year International Kolkata Book Fair 2022 is going to happen. To refresh our memory, a few words about International Kolkata Book Fair 2022 are mentioned hereunder.

Chronology of Events

1974 – Some young publishers decided at College Street Coffee house in an adda or chatting session to organize a book fair at Calcutta by some young publishers. The objective was to bring all book lovers in one place and facilitate them to choose their books by themselves and also to the boost sale of books. The inspiration came from the success story of the Frankfurt Book Fair

1975 –The Publishers & Booksellers Guild was formed

1976 – The first Fair was organized by some young publishers. The venue was in the ground, opposite to Academy of Fine Arts  It had a total of 56 stalls

1988 –  Venue shifted from ground opposite to Academy of Fine Arts to Park Street and Outram Road crossing to accommodate a large number of stalls, books, and crowd

1991 –  Concept of theme for the year was introduced. Assam was the first theme state for the year. The theme changed in each year of the fair

1997 – 33rd Kolkata Book Fair went International. France was the focal theme for this year. A mishap happened this year. A stall at Fair at Maidan caught fire and burned down one-third of the entire complex. More than 100,000 books were charred in the fire and one person named Jiten Seal died from a heart attack during the stampede. The fire broke out on the sixth day.

1999 – Bangladesh was the theme this year and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sk. Hasina came to the city to inaugurate the Fair ceremony

2007 – Venue once again shifted to Salt Lake stadium followed by a High Court Order pronounced In response to public interest litigation filed by a few environmentalists

2008 – International Kolkata Book Fair was postponed for the year due to litigation with environmentalists. The venue this time was supposed to be Park Circus.

2009 – Once again a new venue. This time at Milan Mela ground. The 33rd International Kolkata Book Fair was inaugurated at the Milan Mela Ground.

2018 – The venue changed yet again. This time for the 42nd event on 2018, the venue was The Central Park Mela Grounds.

2021 – Kolkata Book Fair this year canceled due to COVID – 19

2022 – 45th International Kolkata Book Fair 2022 was scheduled to be held initially from 31st January 2022, 13th till February 2022. But, due to the COVID situation rescheduled for February. Now it will be held from 28^th February 2022 to 13^th March 2022. The venue is The Central Park Mela Grounds, Salt Lake. This year’s theme country is Bangladesh.

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