The future of festivals is that they'll be more professionally managed, says new OUP director

Karachi Literature Festival is ready to ring in its tenth anniversary this March, but will this year showcase any innovation after the management overhaul?

Late last year, the then Managing Director at Oxford University Press Pakistan and the co-founder of the Karachi Literature Festival Ameena Saiyid and Asif Farruki retired from the organisation and started their own venture called The Adab Fest, which debuted in Karachi on February 1st of this year.

Following their retirals, OUP roped in Arshad Saeed Husain to replace them. It resulted in a complete overhaul of the old system and a new management was put in its place which includes a seven-member advisory board for the KLF.

Coming from a strict corporate background, we wondered how Hussain managed to take the reins of KLF and whether this transition was easy for him. Images got in touch with the new MD to find out.

Images: Can you tell us a little bit about your background? What did you do before you came to OUP?

ASH: I am not from the publishing field. I've been working with different multinationals for the past 25 years. I've been heading different organisations; I started from ICI then I moved to GlaxoSmithKline from I moved to a Swiss agro company Syngenta, where I was managing director for Pakistan and briefly in Indonesia then I moved to Abbott Laboratories and eventually came to OUP. What I bring to OUP is a broad-based commercial and general management experience.

Images: What can you tell us about the planning behind this year's KLF? In previous years the brains behind the programming were Ameena Saiyid and Asif Farrukhi. Have you taken on this role? Who handles the bulk of the programming?

ASH: This year the focus is on 'tomorrow' and what we're focusing is on the youth of the country and the challenges facing the youth. In curating or putting together the program we felt that rather than a couple of individuals putting the whole programme together we wanted to be more inclusive this time so we established an advisory board [of seven people] for the KLF, which includes Bina Shah, Muneeza Shamsie, Michael Houlgate who handle the English side and the rest, the Urdu side.

Images: Since the Adab Festival is direct 'competition' so to speak, how does that affect KLF? How does that change the culture and future of literature festivals in the country?

ASH: I don't think there is any competition between festivals and for a city like Karachi the more festivals you have the better it is. We encourage more events to take place in any city, whether Karachi or Lahore. The other thing different about KLF is the fan following that we have; we were the first ones to come in, we started 10 years ago and the important thing is the diverse background we are able to attract at the KLF.

We've got people coming from different socio-economic backgrounds and areas: from Lyari, North Karachi, KDA, Defence, Clifton. There is no entry fee, there are no reserved seats, it's a first come, first served basis and you a get such a good mix of people. What I have seen in other literary festivals is that they are generally restricted to a certain kind of people or a particular group of people, with KLF practically all of Karachi is there. Last year we had almost 200,000 people come visit.

"The people who are with us [on the advisory panel] are specialists in their fields or literary figures but then they reached out to younger people to get their ideas for various sessions," says the managing director

I think that we have also evolved, the KLF over the years has evolved, every year we learn something new and try new things, we also like to visit other festivals and see what is happening in other parts of the world and try and bring in new ideas from different parts of the world and to the KLF.

I think overall the future of festivals is that they are going to evolve and be more professionally managed they're going to engage larger audiences and get more and more international speakers involved and wanting to come to Pakistan. As much as [these festivals] are for the people of Pakistan, they're also showcasing Pakistan to foreign speakers. When they come and they attend our festivals they go back as our ambassadors and they have stories to tell as well. So for us, the more festivals the better and the more foreign speakers who come the better.

Images: You said at an earlier press conference that this year's KLF will appeal to a younger audience than before, how so?

ASH: In terms of the sessions that we're covering in this year's festivals, we have a girl from Lyari coming, a concert by one of the Pepsi Battle of the Bands contestants, we have four documentaries; they all appeal to the youngsters, for them the visual element is really important. There are book launches by young authors, promoting young authors like Taha Kehar - [it's] a holistic program with something for everyone.

Images: In terms of the advisory board; it's a panel full of people from an older generation, don't you think the advisory board should've included at least a few young voices if that is the audience you're targeting?

ASH: The advisory panel also takes feedback from others and essentially when curating the sessions or designing the program we reach out to various other groups of people to help us develop and design the program which is where the theme on the youth and the 'focus on tomorrow' came from. The people who are with us are specialists in their fields or literary figures but then they reached out to younger people to get their ideas for various sessions. The objective was not that they will be the only people designing the program.

People have been reaching out to us directly as well. As soon as our first KLF ad went out in the papers youngsters started reaching out to us directly. The organising committee is there to sift and go through suggestions.

Images: Which session are you most looking forward to?

ASH:I think that's going to be a difficult choice because there're so many good sessions but there's a session on judicial activism that I think is going to attract a lot of attention where we have the former chief justice talking. The book launch by Deborah Baker, that's going to be an exciting session. The film Rani is premiering and that is going to be very interesting.

Images: What were the challenges you faced taking on this role?

ASH: I think the biggest challenge is in terms of people's expectations because when you're putting together a festival you're working with limited budgets, you're working with limited time and you can't satisfy every person who comes in or every idea that comes in, so we've tried to incorporate as many interesting new ideas as possible. But I'm sure there are going to people who are still not happy with the program. As always any feedback we take positively and we feel its an opportunity to further improve.

Images: The crowds at KLF have grown in recent years, how are you going to manage them this time?

ASH: Unfortunately there aren't any better places than the current venue Beach Luxury, where you can have multiple sessions happening at once. We are trying to optimise the usage of space where we expect more crowds to come, we've allocated them the bigger rooms or the garden area but there are only so many people we can incorporate, and moving on it is going to become a challenge as more and more people attend the festival.