With 14 million of its 19 million population online one might think a digital fall-back plan would be under consideration, but so far that looks unlikely, which is perhaps not surprising when countries with much bigger online populations and much more robust publishing industries have yet to take online events seriously.
As the Pandemic continues to ravage many parts of the world, scheduling book fairs and festivals has become very much a triumph of hope over experience, but the Romania Publishers Association had bravely announced dates for the six annual BookFest events, all of course subject to revision.
As ever the showcase event will, should it go ahead, be the 15th BookFest Bucharest, where Japan will be Guest of Honour between June 1-5 2022.
Before that, and perhaps too early in the year for comfort, the 9th BookFest Timișoara event is scheduled for 7 – 10 April 2022.
August 31 through September 4 will hopefully see the 5th BookFest Chisinau event, while also in or starting in September will be BookFest Târgu Mureș (7th incarnation, to run September 22-25) and the 9th BookFest Cluj-Napoca, starting September 29 and winding up on October 2.
The 2022 BookFest programme will wind up November 3-8 with BookFest Brasov.
For locations, but very little other detail at this time, head over to BookFest Romania here.
The BookFest programme was put on hold in 2020 for obvious reasons –
and we can only hope the warmer and drier summer months in East Europe will mean the programme can resume in some capacity.
With 14 million of its 19 million population online one might think a digital fall-back plan would be under consideration, but so far that looks unlikely, which is perhaps not surprising when countries with much bigger online populations and much more robust publishing industries have yet to take online events seriously.
