The four-day festival, to be held at the sandy shores of Kozhikode from January 11, will witness over 400 speakers — including authors, actors, thinkers, and activists — participating in discussions on several themes such as science and technology, literature, art, gender, cinema, culture and environment.
“The list continues with historian William Dalrymple, Tamil Nadu Minister for IT and Digital Services Palanivel Thiagarajan, Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Malaysian author Saras Manickam, Grammy award winner TH Vinayakram, actor Prakash Raj, American physician-author Abraham Verghese, award-winning author Perumal Murugan and comedian Kanan Gill,” said the organisers in a statement.
Also featured on the speakers list are authors Anita Nair, Devika Rege, Suraj Yengde, Shobha Tharoor Srinivasan, Durjoy Datta, Preeti Shenoy, Charu Nivedita, Monika Halan and Krish Ashok.
While countries like the UK, Wales, Spain, Japan, USA, Malaysia, Spain, and France will be participating in the “truly global celebration of literature and culture”, Turkey will celebrate its 100 years as a republic at the KLF, the organisers further said.
Author Gurcharan Das, activist-dancer Mallika Sarabhai, economist Parakala Prabhakar, philosopher-author Sundar Sarukkai, art historian Alka Pande, ad film director Prahlad Kakkar, journalists Bachi Karkaria, Barkha Dutt and P Sainath are also part of the line-up.
The festival will also feature a performance by over 25 “original Sufi dancers” from the Turkish city of Konya, the resting place of poet Rumi.
Concerts by Carnatic legends such as Krishna and Vinayakram, along with surbahar and sitar concert by Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee will also be a part of the festival.