76th Frankfurter Buchmesse plans further growth
230,000 visitors, more than 4,300 exhibitors, over 3,300 events and a sold-out book fair weekend – Director Juergen Boos: “Our internationality creates relevance”
The 76th Frankfurter Buchmesse (16-20 October 2024), which ended today (Sunday), continued its growth trajectory of recent years. With 115,000 trade visitors (previous year: 105,000) from 153 countries (previous year: 130 countries) and 115,000 private visitors (previous year: 110,000), it increased its scope both as an international fair for the publishing and media industry and as a festival for literature fans – despite the limited number of tickets available for the two weekend days of the fair.
More than 4,300 exhibitors (previous year: 4,100) were present in the halls. The Literary Agents & Scouts Centre (LitAg), which was fully booked long before the fair, and the Publishers Rights Centre (PRC), which was also in high demand, once again reported record occupancy with a total of 593 tables. The two working centres for international rights trading were busier than ever, welcoming rights professionals from a total of 355 agencies and publishers, as well as 38,000 visitors. More than 7,500 media representatives (previous year: 7,000) covered the over 3,300 events that took place during the fair.
Collaboration and cooperation are becoming more important
“Internationality is our trademark. It creates the relevance that we have witnessed in the increased number of participants in all areas,” said Juergen Boos, Director of Frankfurter Buchmesse. “From the perspective of our exhibitors and trade visitors, the 76th Frankfurter Buchmesse was a fair with strong rights deals. Collaboration and cooperation are also playing an increasingly important role. The publishing industry is reaching out to its neighbours in the creative industries, and vice versa. Our activities in the area of cross-genre adaptations are becoming more and more important, something that has long been true of the film industry’s interest in Frankfurter Buchmesse, and it is increasingly true of the games industry.”
Young audience
Karin Schmidt-Friderichs, Chairwoman of the German Publishers & Booksellers Association, emphasized how important the predominantly young audience and its enthusiasm for reading is for the industry as a whole and for the future of books: “The book industry can look back on five successful days: Frankfurter Buchmesse has once again proven to be the main platform for exchange, networking and doing robust business. At the same time, it was a festival of ideas, debates and new perspectives on today’s issues. And anyone who could not previously imagine the growing enthusiasm that young people have for reading experienced it impressively at the fair: seeing umpteen thousands of book fans celebrating their favourite books and authors increases the desire for books and their future.”
Cultural-political programme with more than 80 events
“Frankfurt Calling” was the name of the fair’s cultural-political programme that featured literary perspectives from international speakers. At over 80 talks, readings, discussions and performances, the audience watched Roberto Saviano, Anne Applebaum, Yuval Noah Harari, Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim and Kohei Saito, among others, in the iconic Frankfurt Pavilion and other venues. The topics discussed were as urgent as they were diverse: for example, the global trend towards autocracy, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Black feminism and freedom of expression. The Frankfurt Calling programme was organised in cooperations with organisations like the United Nations, Amnesty International, Memorial, PEN Berlin, CORRECTIV and many others.
Česká sekce v roce 2024
Guests of Honour will include the Czech Republic
With more than 90 authors, Italy, this year’s Guest of Honour at Frankfurter Buchmesse, provided insights into the country’s current publishing portfolio. The corresponding events were held mostly at the Guest of Honour Pavilion, which was designed by architect Stefano Boeri as a piazza. Italy’s presentation as Guest of Honour also included an extensive trade programme, which took place at the Italian collective stand in Hall 5.0. In addition, there were events initiated by Italian authors and their German-language publishers on the fair’s various stages. Italy’s Guest of Honour presentation, which took place under the motto “Roots in the future,” ended on the last day of the fair with the handover of the GuestScroll to the Philippines, Guest of Honour 2025, whose motto will be “The imagination peoples the air”.
Next guest of honour, in 2026, is set to be The Czec Republic. The organisers are already working on the programme.
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