DUBAI: It has been announced on Sunday that the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature will go ahead in 2021. The festival will feature a programme of both digital and live, physical events, and is scheduled to run from Feb 4 to 6, 2021. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the organizers of the UAE’s biggest literary festival held a number of different literature-themed events online, including digitally releasing content from past events and producing a programme of live online events with celebrated authors. In light of the success of these virtual-only events during the pandemic, the organizers decided to incorporate physical and digital components to the 13th edition of the festival. The “phygital” approach has been taken by fashion weeks and other events, including the BET Awards, over the past few months. Dubai Design Week has confirmed this weekend that the sixth edition of its annual festival will be an amalgamation of physical and virtual events. The Emirates Airline Festival of Literature is known for bringing together an array of celebrated names in the literature world under one roof. A number of events and festivals have been cancelled recently in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Up until today, the fate of the UAE’s annual literary festival was uncertain.