The Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2025 witnessed a huge crowd as visitors thronged the fair venues at Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan on the Bhasha Shaheed Dibas and International Mother Language Day on Friday.
The fair, however, saw a moderate crowd on Saturday.
Many publishers and booksellers said that they experienced the biggest crowd with better sales on International Mother Language Day compared with other days of this year鈥檚 fair.
Many of them, however, were not happy with the sales as it sharply decreased on Shaheed Dibas at the month-long fair compared to the previous years鈥� sales.
Kathaprokash stall in-charge Jafirul Islam on Saturday said that thousands of people from all walks of life visited the fair on February 21 and sales were better than the previous days.
Jafirul, however, expressed his frustration over the low sales on Friday and this year鈥檚 overall sales.
鈥楩ebruary 21 marks the highest presence of visitors and the highest sales. The sales, however, have dropped by over 50 per cent this year,鈥� said Jafirul.
The fair on Friday opened at 8:00am and at 11:00am on Saturday it ended at 9:00pm.
Rain disrupted the Saturday fair in the evening. People were seen taking shelter in the stalls and pavilions while booksellers were busy with covering the structures to save the books from rain.聽聽
Bangla Academy premises and Suhrawardy Udyan became crowded in the evening and the sale reached its pick, said publishers on Friday.
Most of the visitors were in black attires to pay tribute to the martyrs of the Language Movement.
The visitors also joined the cultural events, discussions and the theatre festival at the fairground marking the Amar Ekushey.
Long queues were seen at entry and exit points while police and other law enforcement agencies struggled to ensure security.
Young poet Rajia Sultana Nurin, who came to the fair with her friends in the evening, said that the fairground turned into a festival with the presence of a large number of people.
Adarsha chief executive officer Mahabub Rahman said, 鈥楢 large number of visitors have visited the fairground, but the sale is less compared to the past the year,鈥� said Mahabub.
According to the Bangla Academy, 307 new titles were published on Friday and 144 on Saturday at the fair.
