The festival is put on by Blue Metropolis Foundation, a not-for-profit organization established in 1997 to bring together people from different cultures, to share the pleasures of reading and writing, and to encourage creativity and intercultural understanding. The foundation also offers a wide range of educational and social programs year-round, both in classrooms and online. The purpose of these programs is to use reading and writing as therapeutic tools, to encourage academic perseverance, and to fight against poverty and social isolation.