Jaipur Literature Festival 2027: Dates, Passes and How to Get There

Jaipur Literature Festival 2027 runs from Thursday 14 January to Monday 18 January at Hotel Clarks Amer in Jaipur, India ². The organiser's own FAQ gives those dates, and its homepage description calls the 2027 programme the festival's 20th edition ¹. Jaipur BookMark, the festival's B2B forum for the publishing trade, runs on the same five days ².

The dates shift from year to year because the festival is set in mid-January rather than on a fixed calendar date, so check them again before you book anything non-refundable. The 2026 edition ran from 15 to 19 January 2026 at the same hotel, so a booking made on last year's pattern would be off by a day ¹. Anyone searching for Jaipur Literature Festival 2026 will find that the 19th edition ended on Monday 19 January 2026, five days after it opened on Thursday 15 January 2026 ¹.

Some travel pages still say the festival takes place at Diggi Palace with dates to follow. That is outdated: the organiser names Hotel Clarks Amer as the venue ², and the first speaker list for the 2027 edition was announced on 9 October 2026 ⁵.

• Start: Thursday 14 January 2027 ²

• End: Monday 18 January 2027 ²

• Music Stage: 14 to 16 January 2027 ²

• Heritage Evening: 17 January 2027 ²

Tip: The organiser says the programme is subject to change and is posted on its Programme page closer to the festival ². Book flights around the five days, then fix your session list later.

Every visitor aged 12 or over needs a pass, and the choice is between a general or student registration and the Friend of the Festival (FOF) package ². General registration is online only, prices vary by category, early-bird discounts are offered, and students pay less than other categories, while groups get no discount ². General fees are set by category on the registration page, so read it before you plan a budget.

FOF packages for the 2027 edition are priced per person including taxes: 14,500 INR for one day, 26,000 INR for two days, 36,000 INR for three, 46,000 INR for four and 60,000 INR for the full five days ³. The Heritage Evening on 17 January 2027 and the Writers' Ball on 18 January 2027 each cost 3,500 INR as add-ons to an FOF package ³.

What an FOF pass adds:

• A dedicated FOF lounge with tea, coffee and meals, but no access to the Author's Lounge ²

• Access to the Jaipur Music Stage on the days you registered ²

• Special access to certain sessions and sundowner evenings on the five-day package ²

• Children aged 7 to 11 pay half price and children aged 6 and under attend free ²

Paid registrations are non-refundable and non-transferable, with one exception: a 75 percent refund on FOF packages was offered if cancelled on or before 15 December 2026 at 20:00 IST ².

Tip: Carry photo ID for every person, children included. A photocopy is accepted, and the organiser says missing documents may mean refused entry ².

From Jaipur Junction, the practical route to Hotel Clarks Amer is an app-based taxi or a hotel shuttle, because the Pink Line metro reaches the Railway Station stop but none of its 11 stations is named for the venue ¹³. Jaipur Junction (station code JP) sits in Hasanpura and has 8 platforms ¹¹. The venue stands on Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg opposite Fortis Escorts Hospital ⁴.

Jaipur International Airport (JAI) lies in Sanganer, a southern suburb. Terminal 1 handles international flights and Terminal 2 handles domestic flights ¹². Festival Hotel guests who also hold an FOF pass receive airport transfers and a shuttle between hotel and venue, though no dedicated car is provided ².

The metro helps for the Pink City side of a trip. The Pink Line runs from Mansarovar to Badi Chaupar over 11.97 km and 11 stations, with trains every 10 to 15 minutes between 5:30 and 22:30 ¹³. Tokens cost 10 to 30 INR, and a one-day tourist card costs 50 INR plus a refundable 50 INR deposit ¹³.

Foreign visitors need a visa before the trip. India's e-Tourist Visa comes in 30-day, one-year and five-year versions, applications open up to 120 days before travel and must be made at least 4 days ahead, and Jaipur is among the listed arrival airports ¹⁸.

• Airport to venue: app-based taxi or FOF hotel transfer ^{2 12}

• Station to venue: app-based taxi, then metro for the old city ^{11 13}

• Winter note: when heavy fog closes Delhi's airport, flights are sometimes diverted to Jaipur ¹⁰

Tip: Keep a buffer of several hours before any onward flight from Delhi, since fog there can disturb the whole day ¹⁰.

The 20th edition carries the theme "20 Years of Ideas. Stories. Conversations." and includes a series called Bhasha Swarmala that pays tribute to India's languages ⁷. The organiser says the festival hosts over 250 speakers and over 100 artistes each year ². The organiser releases the session schedule closer to the festival and publishes the speaker list sooner ², so the names below come from the announced speaker lists.

The first list named Nobel laureates Esther Duflo and Olga Tokarczuk, with Dame Meera Syal, Lyse Doucet, James Wood, Isabella Hammad, Marcus du Sautoy and Steve Brusatte ^{5 6}. It also included Sudha Murty, Geetanjali Shree, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Homi K. Bhabha, among many others ⁶. Writers from Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, Assamese, Konkani, Kannada, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Sindhi and Manipuri traditions were announced alongside international voices ⁶.

Around the main sessions run three other tracks:

• Jaipur Music Stage, 14 to 16 January 2027, with tickets sold separately on its own site ²

• Heritage Evening at Amber Fort on 17 January 2027, by invitation or as an FOF add-on ²

• Writers' Ball on 18 January 2027, closing the festival ³

The Festival Hub also holds food stalls, a merchandise store and a book store ². Entry to and seating at sessions is first come, and wheelchair facilities are available at the hub ².

Note: The Music Stage site still showed the 2026 line-up of 15 to 17 January 2026, with acts such as Parvaaz and Gauley Bhai, so treat that list as last edition's bill, not the 2027 one ¹⁹.

Mid-January in Jaipur is sunny and dry by day and cold at night: the January mean daily maximum is 22.5 C and the mean daily minimum is 8.4 C ¹⁰. The record low is -2.2 C, and January averages 5.9 mm of rain over 0.6 rainy days ¹⁰. Expect a cold start at the hotel and a warm lawn at lunch.

That swing decides what you wear. Morning sessions, the Heritage Evening at Amber Fort on 17 January 2027 and the late-night ride back all need a proper layer ^{2 10}. Midday outdoors is close to a spring afternoon, so layers that come off are better than one heavy coat.

What to pack:

• A warm layer and a scarf for mornings and the Amber Fort evening

• Sunglasses and sunscreen for the midday sun

• Photo ID for each person, with a photocopy, plus your registration code ²

• A power bank, because the M-badge lives on your phone ²

• Comfortable shoes for queues and stone courtyards

Safety is simple but worth knowing: India uses 112 as its single nationwide emergency number, which replaced older numbers such as 100 for police and 102 or 108 for ambulances ²⁰. Keep valuables in a front pocket in the crowds around the Festival Hub entrance.

Tip: Layers matter more than any single heavy jacket. Check the forecast the evening before, because fog in the Delhi region sometimes shifts travel plans ¹⁰.

The festival's own hotel page lists partner rooms from 9,000 to 18,000 INR per room per night for 2027, inclusive of all taxes and breakfast ⁴. The top rate of 18,000 INR is for the venue hotel itself, Hotel Clarks Amer, and listings that state a drive time put the other hotels between 3 and 15 minutes from the venue ⁴. You do not need an FOF pass to book a festival hotel through the organiser ².

Three ways to choose where to sleep:

• Stay at the venue and walk to sessions, at the highest listed rate of 18,000 INR ⁴

• Stay at a partner hotel a few minutes away and add the shuttle if you also hold an FOF package ^{2 4}

• Stay in the old city near Badi Chaupar and use the Pink Line for sightseeing days, with a taxi to the venue ¹³

Budget arithmetic is easy to do from official numbers. One FOF day at 14,500 INR plus one night at the lowest listed partner rate of 9,000 INR gives 23,500 INR before flights, food and the Heritage Evening ^{3 4}. A full five-day FOF package costs 60,000 INR before any hotel ³.

Booking a festival hotel through the organiser, together with an FOF package, is what brings the airport transfers and the venue shuttle ². Rooms near the venue are the first to go for a festival of this size, so lock one in as soon as your dates are firm.

Tip: Read the cancellation terms of the hotel before paying. FOF packages carried a separate 75 percent refund window that closed on 15 December 2026 ².

Yes, if your phone has data when you reach the gate, because the M-badge arrives by email and WhatsApp and the unique QR code on it is what the venue reads ². Jaipur Literature Festival 2027 at Hotel Clarks Amer in Jaipur concentrates thousands of visitors into one hotel property, and mobile networks in a crowd like that slow down just when everyone opens the same message ².

Three habits avoid the problem:

• Open the M-badge at the hotel each morning and screenshot it while you still have Wi-Fi

• Keep your registration code and a printed copy as the organiser requires ²

• Add a data plan before you arrive instead of relying on hotel Wi-Fi

An eSIM installed before you fly lets you land in Jaipur with a working connection for maps, ride apps and messages, which you can set up through India eSIM plans. Phone payments also run on mobile data, and some stalls and drivers may prefer cash, so carry some small notes.

Remember that the connection you need most is the one that carries the M-badge, the schedule and the ride home. Calls to family and photo uploads can wait until you are back on hotel Wi-Fi, and group chats with friends in other sessions are worth keeping alive all day.

Tip: If your email app has trouble, check WhatsApp first, because the organiser sends the confirmation to both ².

No, the festival has left Diggi Palace; the organiser says it is held at Hotel Clarks Amer in Jaipur ². Diggi Palace, a heritage property on Shivaji Marg in C-Scheme, was built in 1860 by Thakur Saheb Pratap Singh Ji Diggi, and part of it became a heritage hotel in 1991 ⁹. It served as the festival venue from 2006 to 2020 ⁹.

The festival itself was inaugurated in 2006 by Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple, who remain its co-directors, with Teamwork Arts producing it ^{8 2}. Since 2006 it has hosted over 8,000 writers, speakers and artists and welcomed over five million visitors on the ground, according to a 2026 announcement ⁷.

Diggi Palace is still worth knowing about as a piece of festival memory. In 2015, former President A. P. J. Abdul Kalam drew a crowd of about 5,000 to its front lawns ⁸. In 2012, Salman Rushdie cancelled his appearance citing threats, and four authors who read excerpts from a banned book left Jaipur on the advice of festival officials, according to police ⁸.

• Old home: Diggi Palace, Shivaji Marg, C-Scheme, Jaipur, from 2006 to 2020 ⁹

• Current home: Hotel Clarks Amer, Jawahar Lal Nehru Marg, Jaipur ^{2 4}

• Co-directors: Namita Gokhale and William Dalrymple ²

Note: Some third-party travel pages keep the old address. If a page tells you to go to Diggi Palace for the 2027 festival, trust the organiser's site instead ².

The dish to try first is dal baati churma, the Rajasthani combination of dal with baked baati bread and sweet churma ¹⁷. The Festival Hub has several food stalls serving a variety of cuisines and beverages, and FOF delegates eat in their own lounge ². Between sessions, though, Jaipur's own food is the better reason to leave the hotel.

What to try around the festival:

• Dal baati churma: dal with baked baati and sweet churma ¹⁷

• Gatte ki sabzi: gram-flour dumplings in a yogurt gravy ¹⁷

• Ker sangri: a dish of dried ker berries and sangri beans ¹⁷

• Laal maas: a red-gravy lamb dish from the Rajput tradition ¹⁷

• Pyaaz kachori and mawa kachori: savoury and sweet fried pastries ¹⁷

• Ghevar: a honeycomb cake of wheat-flour batter fried in ghee and soaked in sugar syrup ¹⁷

Rajasthan is also strongly vegetarian. One 2014 survey quoted in the article puts the share of vegetarians in the state at 74.9 percent ¹⁷. That helps vegetarian visitors, and it means a meat dish like laal maas is a deliberate order, not the default.

Match the food to the day. Light snacks keep you in your seat during a long afternoon of sessions, and a proper meal after the last session saves you from a rushed dinner on the late taxi ride. Ask at your hotel desk which neighbourhood restaurants are open late on festival evenings.

Tip: Eat before the session you most want to see. Seating is first come and the organiser does not allow seat reservations ².