Queen Letizia inaugurates the Madrid Book Fair: “It is a commercial and popular fair and it should continue that way” | EUROtoday

Institutional normality generally exists and works. For instance, it exists and works within the Madrid Book Fairwhich is similar truthful yearly, with the identical white aluminum cubicles, with the identical Retirement park and with the month of June itself, which is at all times too sunny or too wet, relying on what occurs.

The Queen Letizia inaugurated the Fair this Friday morning in an official go to to which she was accompanied by the minister Ernest Urtasunthe overall director of the Book, Mara Jos Glvezthe director of the truthful, Eva Ore and the representatives of the publishing sector and the Madrid public administrations, together with the mayor of the capital, José Luis Martínez Almeida.

Doa Letizia has visited the stands of small publishers (Traffic) and medium (The Cliff), of public establishments (the brand new House of Architecturehe tradition Ministrythe National Police) and international (the services of Quebec y Andorra), that of an unbiased bookstore and that of a label that brings literature within the Galician language to the general public within the capital of the Kingdom.

Institutional normality can also be that. If it really works in guide Fair It is for a motive that’s easy to elucidate: as a industrial software, the Fair is infallible, not less than till now. Two years in the past, its contributors invoiced 10 million euros in three weeks; final yr the gross sales determine reached 11.2 million euros although it rained many days for the reason that variety of guests was decrease than in 2022. In this month of June, after three and a half consecutive years of will increase in Spain's GDP and with the guide market stabilized at most volumes, what It is regular for the Fair to equal or exceed these figures.

“Even in bad years, the investment in the Fair pays off in a long way,” explains, in the midst of the royal delegation, a Madrid editor, member of the Fair's organizing committee. “This year we received 10 delegations from abroad who came to tell them how we work. The conclusion is that the Madrid Book Fair has outward appeal,” he says. Eva Ore, who this yr completes her contract as director of the Fair. “What we try to convey to them is that the challenge every year is that the Fair is the same as always but that it can be experienced like never before.”

“The ritual of going to book Fair is the same and should not change,” says Ore. Walking by the park, assembly the authors and telling them how a lot we worth their books, socializing just a little, seeing that there are numerous individuals in all places, taking the kids to go on the love of tradition and, above all, shopping for one thing… “This is a popular and commercial fair, that is its essence.” Ore remembers that sales space charges haven’t elevated this yr (minimal areas are rented for much less). of three,000 euros). Car Ride of Madrid, the Fair host 358 homes who will promote their books with 10% reductions.

The complexity is that the guide FairIn addition to being a good, additionally it is perceived as a cultural establishment and that creates expectations. For a few years, criticism of the Fair's administration centered on the truth that the better-financed firms displaced the weaker actors, the unbiased bookstores and small publishers that have been left marginalized. Markets have that unhealthy half. To treatment this, this yr the Fair has tailored areas to handle its micro purchasers. He Octgono It is a pavilion within the geographic heart of the Fair that can be shared by eight small publishers for whom the worth of a sales space is just too excessive. In one other pavilion referred to as Indmitas there can be non permanent occupants, even smaller than these of the Octagon.

None of those developments will essentially change the expertise of people that go to the Madrid Book Fair however maybe collectively they may assist the Junes of the Withdrawal Do not fall into routine, in order that your viewers doesn’t age, simply as we don’t need the demand for literature to age. “I am not an expert in policies to promote reading but there are things that I have seen in recent years at the Fair,” says Ore. “There are children who are fanatical about reading. A lot. We do children's reading contests and we see an amazing interest in books. Teenagers read even more. And, then, there is a moment when we lose them. The challenge is not to lose them. It can be that the efforts we make to retain them are based on the idea that children do not read what we, adults, think they should read.