BOOKAREST The Bucharest International Book Fair

"BOOKAREST" The Bucharest International Book Fair 6th edition Focus theme: Germany
Venue:	Etaj 3/4 Gallery in the National Theatre building, Bucharest
Date:	June 3 - 7, 1998
Organizers:	the artexpo Foundation with support from the Ministry of Culture
Exclusive Sponsor:	CONNEX GSM, which also organized its own promotional and artistic program during the Fair, including the "CONNEX Soiree".
Rental fee:	400.000 lei/m² for Romanian participants; 100 $/m² for foreign participants.
Total exhibition area of the Fair:	ca. 1 700 m 2
Exhibitors:	a total of 296. From abroad: 110 in individual booths or represented by distributors; participants from Germany: the collective stand with more than 1500 titles on show; DS-Druck und Verlag Services - literary agency, Swets und Zeitlinger - foreign book distributor, Berliner Handpresse - printing & publishing house, Kubon & Sagner, GBV GUTE BOTSCHAFT Verlag - private publishing houses, Leipziger Buchmesse, Frankfurter Buchmesse - book promoting structures, the Goethe Institute in Bucharest; 5 particpants from Belgium; 1 from Switzerland; 73 from France; 16 from the UK; 1 from Hungary; 5 from the Republic of Moldova. From Romania: 186 as follows: 103 private publishers; 20 state-owned publishing houses; 3 literary agencies; 17 printing houses with/without publishing house; 7 groups of publishers; 9 Romanian book distributors; 14 foreign-book distributors; 2 advertising companies; 5 book promoting structures; 3 cultural institutions; 2 electronic equipment & information technology suppliers.
Comments on the exhbitors:	The French stand was situated in the first hall on the 3rd floor of the exhibition space, with an area of about 350 m² and over 1800 books exhibited. "Espace France" - as the French stand was called - also included a Francophone Book Salon, organized by Agence de la Francophonie, which gathered books and publications from countries of the Francophone space - especially from its south. The concert shows (performed by guitar player El Hadj N'Diaye from Senegal) enjoyed the appreciations of both the exhibitors and the public. An opinion poll showed that the accessible prices of the books exhibited in the French stand attracted buyers, so that the number of books sold was beyond expectations. Besides, the sales at the stands of the Romanian publishers, although lower than the previous year, belied pessimistic forecasts.
Events:	the Book Fair Catalogue in Romanian and English, including the alphabetical list of the exhibitors, index by categories, fields, locations; leaflets; 2 posters; 3 invitations; press folder; banners; badges. A magazine called BOOKAREST MAGAZINE was published during the Fair, jointly by the artexpo Foundation and the Association of Professional Writers in Romania - ASPRO, with Ion Bogdan Lefter as editor-in-chief The Fair's Program: 282 book launches; 6 exhibitions: Posters of the previous editions of the Frankfurt Book Fair; book exhibition marking the 100th anniversary of Bertholt Brecht's birthday; the Günter Grass exhibition; engravings by Wolfgang and Ingrid Jorg - Berliner Handpresse; "The Most Beautiful German Books of 1997"; "Romanian Contemporary Writers" - drawings by Cristian Tarbã; 12 literary readings including 2 by the German writers Kathrin Schmidt and Andreas Sinakowski; 5 debates including one about the Romanian participation in German book fairs; contests and raffles; concerts. Other events included in the Fair's Program: The 1997 ASPRO Awards Gala, organized by the Association of Professional Writers in Romania);
Media coverage of the Fair:	112 articles in 17 publications; 10h 40min. of radio broadcasting; 3h 50 min. of TV broadcasting. The Fair's Magazine, published in five issues by the Book Fair organizers jointly with the Association of Professional Writers in Romania - ASPRO and "Litere Nouã", the magazine of the Faculty of Letters of the Bucharest University, recorded the main events of the exhibition. The web site of the fair www.artexpo.ro, includes information on the previous editions of the Fair, on the organizers, and practical information, in Romanian, French and English. The Fair's catalogue (published in Romanian, French and English), contains information on the participants, their activities and their booth location.
Important visits, personalities:	The Fair was visited by political personalities - the Prime Minister, the Minister of Culture, other ministers, party leaders, members of Parliament, Romanian and French writers, publishers, managers in the cultural field, and other public figures. The unanimous impression was that young people prevailed among the categories of visitors.
Visitors:	about 47,000