Asian Festival of Children’s Content

The Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC), formerly known as the Asian Children’s Festival (ACF), is an annual event organized by the National Book Development Council of Singapore and the National Library Board of Singapore. The main goal of the festival is to promote lifelong learning and to create opportunities for learning about Asian culture and creating content specifically designed for children and young adults.

The first festival was held in 2000. It was originally called the Asian Children’s Writers & Illustrators Conference (ACWIC). Inspired by the success of the inaugural event, the organizers decided to hold it each year and eventually transformed the conference into the Festival of Children’s Content. While the conference was designed for content creators, the festival caters to both those who create content and those for whom it is created.

The programming of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content includes a wide range of events for visitors of all ages and backgrounds. It features ticketed events (Writers & Illustrators Conference, Cross-Platform Summit, Preschool & Primary Teachers Congress, Parents Forum, masterclasses, Writers & Illustrators Retreat) and free events (AFCC Book Fair, Book Illustrators Gallery, Fun with Languages, book launches, performances and activities, Festival Artists’ Outposts).

The events are designed for a wide audience which includes writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, literary agents, booksellers, educators, librarians, parents, and, of course, children and young adults. They give a great opportunity to meet new people and network, exchange useful and interesting information and experiences, and learn something new.

Each edition of the Asian Festival of Children’s Content features over 200 speakers and moderators, more than 700 conference delegates and about 10,000 attendees from Australia, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, the United States, Vietnam, and other countries. The festival welcomes participants and visitors from Asian countries and non-Asian countries that have a considerable Asian diaspora.

Each festival focuses on the culture of a particular Asian country – this year’s Country of Focus. For example, the 2016 edition was focused on Japan and its programming included seminars on translating Japanese children’s books into other languages, presentations of popular Japanese children’s books, and other events somehow related to Japanese literature and culture.

In 2020, the event was held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.