Executive Director of the Romanian Publishers Association (AER) Mihai Mitrica says that the 2024 edition of the Bookfest International Book Fair was a successful one, despite the fact that "being close in time to elections" affected the audience figures of the book launches.
"I think it was quite a difficult Bookfest to organise, because besides the small resources of the association there were some computer incidents, let's say, that paralysed our Bookfest.ro site, at some point, but, summarising the days of Bookfest 2024, I can say that it was a successful edition, with beautiful launches with people who were happy to see each other. (...) I'm not hiding the fact that the proximity in time to the electoral moment affected the audience figures of the launches, but, summing up, considering the politicians who passed here, I think we have integrated quite well into this very busy calendar that is the end of May, the beginning of June in Bucharest," Mitrica told AGERPRES.
He adds that Moldova lived up to its status of guest of honour.
"I had all the confidence, and I am glad that it was confirmed. Moldova occupied an area similar to that of Italy, which is, however, a consistent book market and I want to tell you that it did not seem at all a deserted or unused space. On the contrary, everything that happened at Moldova's stand could compete with the presence of any guest of honour both at Bookfest and at any other fair abroad."
Mitrica adds that, compared with the last year's edition, at Bookfest 2024 "there is more and more pressure on inflation, increasing raw material costs, although AER did its best not to transfer cost increases to exhibitors, but on the contrary, to encourage the participation of small publishing houses, offering them halved fees."
"And that translates into less new titles, a phenomenon that, in the future, will greatly affect the diversity of the market. Many publishing houses unfortunately reduced their areas, except for the few with a higher investment available."
The 17th edition of Bookfest ended on Sunday. Held between May 29 and June 2 at the Romexpo Exhibition Centre, the event brought together 200 exhibitors, 150 publishing houses from Romania and Moldova, who organised over 400 events dedicated to reading lovers.
A project co-funded by the Ministry of Culture, Bookfest is organised by the Romanian Publishers Association under the aegis of the Federation of Romanian Publishers, under the High Patronage of the President of Romania.
Bookfest 2024's guest of honour was Moldova, under the slogan "I embrace you, the Republic of Moldova" that organised about 40 events, enjoyed by the large audience that chose to visit.
Invited as guests of honour at previous international editions of the book fair were Spain, Hungary, France, German language countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Poland, the Czech Republic, Israel, Sweden, the US, the UK, Japan and Italy.
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