Gomti Book Festival 2026 Set for 12–20 September at Lucknow University Ground
Lucknow’s multi-day book fair returns to the campus calendar this month. Publisher listings and National Book Trust tender material place the Gomti Book Festival 2026 at Lucknow University Ground from 12 to 20 September 2026, with public hours given as 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM daily.
Niyogi Books and its children’s imprint Perky Parrot are inviting Lucknow readers to their stalls for art and non-fiction titles alongside picture books, with author and illustrator sessions flagged for all ages. National Book Trust, India, has separately floated infrastructure tenders for hangar structure, stalls and sound for the same 12–20 September window, confirming the civic scale of the fair beyond a single publisher popup.
In Short
- Dates: 12–20 September 2026.
- Hours: 11:00 AM–8:00 PM daily (as listed by Niyogi Books).
- Venue: Lucknow University Ground, Lucknow.
- Organising frame: National Book Trust festival infrastructure; publishers including Niyogi Books / Perky Parrot on the floor.
Who should plan a visit
The fair is aimed at general readers, students, parents and children — a campus-side stop rather than a ticketed night show. University-linked crowds already know the LU Ground approach; city readers who followed campus stories such as Anud Singh Dhaka’s Lucknow University bond or the 2026 convocation medal haul will find the venue familiar even if they have not walked a book fair aisle there before.
Niyogi’s note also mentions online registration for an extra purchase discount at their stalls. That is a publisher offer, not a gate ticket; treat it as optional if you only want to browse.
How to use the nine days
- Pick a cooler morning or late afternoon slot; the daily window runs nine hours, so you need not clear the whole ground in one pass.
- Combine a weekday visit with other east-Lucknow errands, or keep a Sunday free if family browsing needs more time.
- Carry a short wishlist and a bag; book-fair aisles reward travellers who can hold purchases while walking.
- Confirm stall maps and session timings closer to 12 September through NBT and participating publishers — tenders fix dates; programmes still firm up in the final week.
Readers who track the city’s river and green strips, including the Gomti cleaning timeline and an east Lucknow green-day circuit, can treat the LU Ground fair as the September cultural counterpart: indoor-outdoor browsing with a clear end date.
Why it matters
A nine-day, daytime book festival on a university ground is one of the few September events that serves students, families and serious readers on the same ticket — here, without a ticket at all in the publisher listing. Marking 12–20 September now lets Lucknow households plan around exams, office weeks and the mid-month calendar before the stalls go up.
Sources: Niyogi Books, NBT tender notice, NBT tender PDF (12–20 Sep 2026)
