"BOOKAREST" The Bucharest International Book Fair
8th edition
Guest of honour: Great Britain
Venue: ETAJ 3/4 Gallery, the Hall on the 1st floor of the National Theatre and the Dalles Hall in Bucharest.
Date: May 24 - 28, 2000
Organizers: the artexpo Foundation with support from the Ministry of Culture, the ARCUB Centre for Cultural Projects, the Romanian Professional Writers Association and AER - the Romanian Publishers Association.
Sponsors: CONNEX.
Rental fee: the equivalent in lei of 55 $/ m2 for Romanian publishers and of 100 $/m2 for foreign exhibitors; the equivalent in lei of 80 $/m2 for foreign book dealers. The complete outfit for a 6 m2 booth included 5 panels with 4 bookstands each, 1 table, 2 chairs, waste basket, 1 spotlight for 3 m, a standard sign for every firm, 2 badges, and inclusion in the Fair catalogue. Extra services were available for extra fees.
Total exhibition area of the Fair: approx. 2 800 m2.
For the second time, the Bucharest International Book Fair hosted at the Dalles Hall The Antiquarians' Salon where some of the well-known old-book stores and antique galleries presented their offer.
The opening speeches were pronounced by H.E. Richard Ralph, the Ambassador of the UK in Romania, and by Robin Baker, Managing Director for Europe of the British Council.
Exhibitors: 260, including 170 from Romania and 90 from Britain, France, Germany, the USA, the Republic of Moldova and Belgium, some of them directly participating in the Book Fair, others represented by dealers. Britain was the guest of honour, being represented by the stand of the British Council. Other stands of British publishers or British-book importers were Books Unlimited, Prior Books, Educational Centre - Oxford University Press and Education for Change - Club Europa or Macmillan Heinemann. The French publishers were represented by France Edition. On an area of 36 m2, 59 of the most important French publishers displayed their books.
Comments on the exhbitors: This edition was predominantly commercial in character.
The currently published titles in Romania are a little over 6,000 a year, while the number of copies diminished by 60 - 70%. The book market shrank due to the growing inflation. The number of copies per title is somewhere between 2,000 and 10,000. The state-owned
distribution system disappeared and some of the most active publishing houses developed their own distribution network. The legal system does not protect cultural spaces. Moreover, the book market suffers from heavy taxation (e.g. taxes on the import of paper, mailing expenses and so on). In spite of a pessimistic outlook, the Bucharest International Book Fair was a success from a commercial point of view, for publishers, and managed to preserve its identity.
Events: The English programme focused on the concept of cyberspace and included ten Internet virtual exhibitions and access to multimedia CD-ROMs and websites.
The Fair opened with a presentation of The New British Council - a series of new projects for Romania starting September 2000.
Other events included daily English literature contests, a poster exhibition entitled The Writer's Eye, a documentary exhibition "Britain - past and present, face to face", a photo exhibition - "Creative Britain", two round tables, "Ethnicity in Literature" and "Literary Translations of British Literature". Declamations of British poetry were rewarded with prizes by the artexpo Foundation and the British Council. In the evenings, a brief British film festival was organized on the roof terrace.
Further events included:
- 3 exhibitions of graphic art: that of the Slovak artist Dušan Nágel, Daniel Petru Ionescu's engravings exhibition, as well as the exhibition of the students from the Arts University;
- Rãzvan Voiculescu's photo exhibition (Q-T-RAZ);
- ASPRO Awards Gala (the Romanian Professional Writers Association), as well as a number of literary readings organized by ASPRO;
- The AER Awards (the Romanian Publishers Association);
- The lecture "The Literary Central Europe" given by Professor Jacques Le Rider, followed by the launching of the translation of his book "The European Idea";
- About 200 books and collection launches.

At this edition of the Book Fair were invited as guests Romanian writers living abroad as well as several foreign authors such aas Professor Dr. Gaetano Mollo from Italy, Annick de Souyernelle, Gerard Bayo and Michael Onfray from France, Françoise Choquard from Switzerland, and Mike Phillips from Great Britain.
Media coverage of the Fair: included over 100 articles and advertising on TV and radio. The newspapers and magazines carried daily articles concerning the Fair, the publishing houses and the book launches.
The Fair's review BOOKAREST was published in 5 issues.
The Fair's Website - www.artexpo.ro - included data about past editions, as well as practical information in Romanian, French and English.
The Fair's catalogue was printed in Romanian and English and offered information on the exhibitors, their activity and the location of their stand.
Important visits, personalities: The President of Romania, ministers, members of Parliament, diplomats.
Visitors, VIPs: approx. 55,000. Significantly, a great number of young people visited this edition of the Book Fair , in spite of the difficult economic situation.
Entrance fee: 10.000 lei (approximately USD 0.50), free entrance for children and 50% discount for students, retired people and army personnel.