JLF: There's no such thing as a free lit fest

There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Or a free Jaipur Literature Festival. Somebody has to pay for it; be it in the form of high delegate fees or in the form of low fees, subsidised by sponsors. For those who didn’t make it, this would give you an idea of what you would have paid (and received) if you chose to become a delegate (which was not compulsory; you could have attended the event free). As the site says, “The DSC Jaipur Literature Festival is free and open to all, however you may choose to become a delegate. As a Delegate, you can avail the following: • Lunch at the festival hub. • Dinner at the festival hub. • Invitation to all concerts and receptions hosted during the festival. (Excluding dinner on 24th January). • A delegate bag with sponsor gifts & a badge which will allow full access. • Accommodation at one of our suggested hotels at special festival rates. (If required) • Transport within Jaipur and transfers between Delhi & Jaipur. (If required)” [caption id=“attachment_191308” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“To maintain inclusiveness and accessibility to all, organisers of the JLF pulled in sponsors like IDFC (whose branding is shown in the background at a panel discussion). Reuters”]  [/caption] Paying a delegate fee of Rs. 2,500 per day would give you the above mentioned benefits. If you chose not to become a delegate, you would have to arrange for your own lunch and dinner and hope that you could attend a session or two. What you could do, free, is to soak in the atmosphere of the fest and meet and talk to like-minded people and of course, the odd author or two you bumped into. Someone has to pay for the content; there are airfares of the speakers, their accommodation, local conveyance, food and beverages,  communications, infrastructure, event management, the fest’s website, the PR, and so on. And, to maintain the inclusiveness, the organisers pulled in sponsors to make the event accessible. Who are these sponsors – and does their presence on the backdrop tarnish the event? Yes, it does, wrote S Anand . “Each venue was prefixed with the sponsor’s name — Rio Tinto Samvad, Tata Steel Front Lawns — and this did not seem to ‘offend’ most writers. In last year’s edition, Pauline Melville, Guyana-born British writer-actor did say, “This festival is for writers, people who are genuinely interested in the human condition, but behind us are the logos — staring at everybody — of the most pernicious organisations in contemporary finance… Even as I speak, I’m half expecting to get a bullet in the back.” Why should authors be offended? Most of the sponsors are well known, respectable names. In many cases these sponsors are organisations whose business naturally suggests that they sponsor such causes and in others, companies with a long history of supporting the arts. Here’s a full list of the sponsors, and if we break the sponsorship up into four groups — that of brands with natural association, those with justifiable association, brands which support JLF but with no negative connotation and, finally, brands that make you wonder why they’re there — we would arrive at the following: 1. Brands with natural association are those with direct publishing interest or interest in culture and literature American Center, Times of India, Incredible India, Rajasthan Tourism, Ministry of External Affairs, the Public Diplomacy Division of the Ministry of External Affairs, ICCR, Dainik Bhaskar, DNA, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, Google, NewsX, Penguin, British Council, , London Library, Jan Michalski Foundation for writing and literature, Harvard University, Goethe Institute, Telibrahma, Full Circle. 2. Brands with justifiable association will include Tata Steel, Bank of America, RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Coca Cola, Glenlivet, Sula wines, Rambagh Palace, Taj Hotels, Kingfisher, The Oberoi. These brands are either sponsors of services, such as hotel rooms or food and beverages or brands which have supported the arts over the years. 3. Brands which support JLF but with no negative connotation will limited to Ritu Kumar. 4. And brands that make you wonder why they’re there include GC Gibson Charitable Settlement, Oliver Wyman, Group, The Greatship Group DSC, IDFC, Rio Tinto, IPPAI, JCB, Shree Cement, Counselage and Baillie Gifford. So we have a majority of sponsors for whom the sponsorship is a natural activity or easily justified one. The only hazy ones are the fourth block. For these brands, the only questions to ask are: a) Did they influence the content to further any agenda? The answer is no – insofar as there is no government lobbying that could have been achieved at JLF. b) Did the organisers plug them beyond a reasonable limit? Based on all conversations with attendees, the answer is still a firm ‘no’. All that all these brands have done is to write cheques with no RoI in mind – otherwise the cheques would never have got written. Just ask Tata Steel and RP-Sanjeev Goenka about the returns on investments in culture over the decades and you’ll have your answer. It’s time to stop this sponsor bashing; instead, a big thank you to those who sponsored JLF and congratulations to the organisers for getting the sponsors on board.