30th Sonarpur Book Fair

The 30th Sonarpur Book Fair ran from the evening of 6 December to the night of 15 December 2019. After Dakshin Dinajpur in 2018, the theme moved north to Uttar Dinajpur.

Uttar Dinajpur was once part of the unified Dinajpur district, the largest district of the early British period. Before that, it formed the heart of old Poundrabhumi, which saw kingdoms rise and fall and the birth of the Bengal Sultanate. The district came into being on 1 April 1992, with two sub-divisions, Raiganj and Islampur. It is mostly farmland along the Kulik, Nagar and Mahananda rivers. Its attractions include the Swaminath temple, the Rajbari and the Shiva temple at Itahar, and above all the Kulik Bird Sanctuary at Raiganj.

At the fair

• A main complex with about a hundred bookstalls, the theme pavilion, the children’s pavilion and the little magazine pavilion
• Education park and science pavilion
• Government and corporate stalls
• Amusement park and food park
• A cultural stage for a thousand spectators, and an open-air stage

Programme

• Inauguration: 6 December, 3 pm
• Daily evening quiz: 6–15 December
• Run for Books: 8 December, 9 am, from Rail Quarter Park
• Sit-and-draw competition: 8 December, 1 pm
• Extempore speech (secondary and higher secondary): 14 December, 4 pm
• Uttar Dinajpur Divas and felicitation of eminent people: 14 December, 5.30 pm
• School quiz: 15 December, 2 pm
• “Sonarpurer Sonar Meye”: 15 December, 7 pm
• Prize distribution: 15 December, 5.30 pm