A chance to see world’s largest floating book fair

THE world’s largest floating book fair officially opened its doors to the public yesterday and is set to bring a variety of cultural family entertainment in the coming two weeks.

The Logos Hope docked at the Khalifa Bin Salman Port on Tuesday evening and opened its doors to the public yesterday evening, after an official inauguration during the day.

“We have more than 5,000 titles on our ship and there is something for everyone in the family,” Captain Ionut Vlad from Romania, told the GDN on the sidelines of the ceremony.

“Our ship has a capacity of 800 people on the book floor, as well as two events venues where we will be organising a number of cultural exchanges. These have a capacity of 300-400 people.

“But, of course, our ship’s gangways are not a one-way street. We will also be going out and interacting with the local community. We are a community of 200 volunteers from 60 nationalities who call this ship home, and we always look forward to finding ways to interact with and learn from the local community.”

Capt Vlad, who is helming the ship, has worked on the Logos Hope for the last seven years, and along with wife Christina as well as children Cathy, Rebecca and Ilinca, steered the crew through a number of oceans and a pandemic.

The ship will be docked in Bahrain until June 20, and open to the public until June 18, every evening from 4pm to 11pm, except for Monday, when it will be closed. Last access will be at 10pm.

The ship will also be open during the day to pre-booked school field trips, which can be organised by contacting Logos Hope’s volunteer team by email at logoshope.manama@gbaships.org or through the ship’s Instagram (@logoshopebahrain).

There is a 500 fils entrance fee per person, with free entry for children under the age of 12. All those aged 18 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

Although the entrance fee can only be paid in local cash, books can be bought with Bahraini dinars, US dollars and euros, as well as Mastercard and Visa.

In addition to one million books, 5,000 unique titles and an on-board café, the Logos Hope team has announced two cultural events thus far, with more to be unveiled on their Instagram once finalised.

Today from 5pm to 6pm, there is a fun and interactive family-focused event, ‘The Greatest Treasure’, in which children help three pirates look for lost treasure.

On Saturday at 7pm, there will be a ‘Meet the World’ event where attendees can experience the multicultural diversity of the ship’s volunteer crew.

There is a BD1 entrance fee for each of these events and doors open 30 minutes before the start of the show.

The inauguration for Logos Hope was attended by a number of guests including Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities director Farah Mattar and Farooq Zuberi, interim chief executive and chief financial officer at APM Terminals, which is co-ordinating on-ground and port operations for the ship.

The ceremony was addressed by Logos Hope managing director Edward David of Malaysia, who noted that although the Logos Hope had visited Bahrain only twice, with the last being in 2013, the parent organisation has sent floating book fairs to the island as far back as 1971.

“The original Logos had visited Bahrain in 1971 and this is our organisation’s eighth visit to Manama,” he added.

Mr Zuberi highlighted that visiting the Logos Hope would also give the public a rare opportunity to visit the Khalifa Bin Salman Port.

Attendees will need to park at the visitors’ parking lot outside the port entrance, from where shuttle buses will take them to the ship.

Those who wish to visit the Logos Hope but don’t have access to a car can take route 22 on Bahrain Bus, which has been extended up to the shuttle pick up and drop-off point. This service will be available during the weekends from the Manama Bus Terminal between 3.30pm and 10.30pm tomorrow, on Saturday and on June 16 and 17.

Source: https://www.gdnonline.com/Details/1243830/A-chance-to-see-world%E2%80%99s-largest-floating-book-fair