It was a reading festival. But this is Mosul, and until a few months ago it was crawling with Islamic State militants.
They occupied the city's university library, where last week festival-goers celebrated a rich culture and donated books.
The volunteer effort to save what was left of Mosul University library after it was destroyed by IS has renewed hope for the city after more than two years of occupation.
The library once contained hundreds of thousands of ancient documents, including a ninth-century Koran, before it was burned down in a deliberate attempt to erase culture.
But Mosul local and amateur photographer Ali ِAl-Baroodi, who once taught at the university, has been part of a community campaign led by independent blogger Mosul Eye to restore what remained of the library's collection.