Frankfurt Book Fair in the Covid Era: Fewer People, More Formats | Culture and Lifestyle in Germany and Europe

The Frankfurt Book Fair in 2021 returns to the exhibition halls and will once again provide an opportunity for book publishers, writers and readers to communicate with each other live. In 2020, the pandemic forced the book fair to go online, where it was held in a purely digital format.

This year’s largest book show in the world, which starts on the evening of October 19, will be a hybrid – it will be held both in Frankfurt am Main and on the Web. From 20 October the fair will be open to visitors, and it will end on 24 October with the presentation of the German Bookseller Peace Prize.

Return to the “point of contact”

The motto of the 73rd Frankfurt Book Fair will be “Re: connect”, which can be interpreted as a desire to revitalize the contacts disrupted by the pandemic in an industry where face-to-face and personal contact plays a huge role. The International Book Fair in Frankfurt am Main has always been a place to meet, trade book rights and exchange opinions – a “fixed point” for the industry, according to long-term director Jürgen Boos.

Crowded and noisy gatherings of writers, which used to take place in the spacious foyers of respectable Frankfurt hotels, are now planned to be held in virtual halls online. One of the digital offerings of The Hof was successfully tested for the first time in 2020 and now offers fifteen virtual “live music” events.

Frankfurt Book Fair in pre-pandemic 2019: 7,450 exhibitors from 104 countries and over 300,000 visitors

It is hard to imagine that chat in a digital “courtyard” will become a full-fledged substitute for conversations with wine in noble hotels, but the exhibition is forced to resort to such measures due to the fact that numerous guests from abroad will not come this time either.

“We want to balance what can be done locally and digitally,” said Ruth Kumpmann, Head of Accounts and Sales at the Frankfurt Book Fair. Kumpmann emphasized that the book fair wants to be more than a fall event for a few days: “These are our first steps towards a year-round hybrid format.”

More national stands, fewer publishers stands

One of the many innovations in 2021 will be that only a third of the book publishers participating in the fair will present their new products at separate stands, as it was before. The remaining two-thirds of the exhibitors will take their places at the so-called “national stands”, that is, they will share the pavilion with colleagues from their own country.

A total of 1,500 exhibitors from 74 countries are taking part in the Frankfurt Book Fair this year. For comparison, in 2019 the fair had 7,450 exhibitors from 104 countries and a total of more than 300 thousand visitors. This time, due to the concept of hygiene, no more than 25 thousand visitors a day will be allowed into the exhibition pavilions.

Only those who can provide proof of vaccination, recent illness, or negative covid test will be admitted. Compliance with the concept of hygiene and the management of the flow of visitors will be monitored by video surveillance and specially trained staff. Wearing a mask will be mandatory.

Writers will compose the “Manifesto”

One of the most important locations of the fair will be the central hall of the pavilion – Festhalle, where the grand opening will take place and podium events with the participation of famous writers will take place in the following days. Among others there will be Alina Bronski, Bulent Ceylan, Jenny Erpenbeck, Elke Heidenreich, Julia Frank, Dietrich Grönemeyer, Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim and Edgar Selge.

The leitmotif of conversations with the authors will be the global question “How do we want to live further?”, Which will refract such topics as justice and ecology, life and work, education and digitalization.

Dmitry Glukhovsky will also formulate his vision of the future in Frankfurt in a joint Manifesto, on which he will work in a group with other authors from different countries. The fair will also showcase his new book The Post, published in early October by the German publishing house Heyne Verlag.

And again visiting Canada

Canada will again be the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Fair. Last year, the country failed to present its literature properly due to the cancellation of the Frankfurt fair caused by the pandemic. In 2021, 60 authors will represent Canadian literature – however, this time too, most of them are online. The fair pavilions in Frankfurt will have two national stands of Canada – in English and French.

In addition to numerous literary events at the fair itself, a book festival will also take place in Frankfurt with a varied program of slams, concerts and readings.

See also:

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“Inkheart”
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Author: Daria Bryantseva