The organizing committee of Frankfurter Buchmesse 2021 (Frankfurt Book Fair 2021) has announced that the fair will be held 20th to 24th October.
Juergen Boos, Director of Frankfurter Buchmesse has said, “The federal and the state government of Germany discussed with domestic and overseas publishers and literary communities, and decided to hold Frankfurter Buchmesse 2021, scheduled from 20th to 20th October this year, as an in-person event with digital and hybrid offerings in order to be flexible to cope with the COVID situation.”
Director Boos has added that many countries will be participating this year, including France, Spain (guest of honor for 2022), the U.S. and Canada (guest of honor for 2021) which will bring over 300 titles newly released by 248 publishers and 60 authors.
In 2019, Frankfurter Buchmesse attracted 7450 exhibitors from 104 countries with 302,267 total visitors, among which trade visitors were around 144,000 and general visitors about 157,000. In 2020, the organizing committee decided earlier to take the in-person format for the fair, but switched to go digital only one month before the event amid growing concerns over COVID, and that led to make the fair financially unsuccessful unlike in 2019.
Canada was slated to be guest of honor in 2020, but postponed its presentation due to the Corona pandemic, and finally comes back as guest of honor in 20201.
Hall 3 will be allotted to German publishers while Hall 4 and 6 will be given to international publishers. The Forum will be used for Canada, and various other events will be held in the Festhalle. Director Boos is expecting that visitors this year will amount to two thirds the number of previous years.
The fair is scheduled to open to the general visitors for the last three days, opening a day earlier this year, for safer social distancing, and exhibition stands are provided for exhibitors at a reduced price. Moreover, the exhibitors are able to benefit from flexible cancellation policy thanks to the funding from the federal government.
Korea’s monthly culture and arts magazine Cultura, which has been receiving Korea’s government funding for the project of translating and exporting cultural content since this spring, will be participating in Frankfurter Buchmesse 2021 in person.
As a rising K-magazine amid the popularity of the Korean wave, Cultura will be on the press conference and the opening ceremony of the fair on the 19th October, and exhibit its content for the next 5 days. The magazine will take this fair as an opportunity to introduce Korea’s various cultural content to international readers, to sign MOUs with partners and to work to promote the magazine for future export.
Jaewon Sheol Editor / Translated by Ok Eurom
* 《Cultura》 2021 October (Vol. 88) *
