Dozens of publishing houses, hundreds of titles, thousands of books to be present at Bookfest International Book Salon

Chisinau, 26 August /MOLDPRES/ - Dozens of publishing houses, hundreds of titles and thousands of books will be present at the Bookfest International Book Salon, due to be organized in Chisinau on 28 August – 1 September. During five years, visitors will be able to find at the event the most representative publishing houses of Romania and Moldova, with books exclusively in the Romanian language and with the best price bids. The entrance is free.      

The International Book Salon will be hosted by the Mediacor Centre at the headquarters of the Moldovan State University (USM) and will be able to be visited during 10:00-20:00. Bookfest Chisinau enjoys the High Patronage of Romania’s President Klaus Iohannis and President Maia Sandu this year as well.    

At a today’s news conference, Culture Minister Sergiu Prodan said that, this year, Moldova had been an honorary guest of the Bucharest-based Bookfest for the first time ever. Moldova had a high level of presence and representation at this event. ‘’Neither three months have passed and so today I urge the reading public to attend the events due to be organized at the Bookfest edition in Chisinau. During five days, we will have tens of publishing houses, hundreds of titles and thousands of books. Here, at Bookfest, is the place where there the more money someone spends, the richer he/she becomes. The concentration of book on square metre will be exceptional, maybe unique in the world,’’ Sergiu Prodan said.        

The executive director of the Association of Editors from Romania, Mihai Mitrica, said that the prices provided at the International Book Salon might be, on average, by 30 per cent lower than the prices in bookshops or even more in some cases.  

Rector of the Moldovan State University Igor Sarov said that the investments in books were the most long-term ones. According to Sarov, Chisinau becomes, for a short period, the scientific and cultural capital of the entire Romanian landscape, as concomitantly with Bookfest, the Congress of Romanian historians would be held in Chisinau for the first time ever, in which over 500 people will participate.   

The publishing houses participating in the Salon will donate about 3,000 books to the National Library of Moldova (BNRM). BNRM director Elena Pintilei urged the residents and guests of the capital to come to event, in order to discover the surprises and sales prepared by the organizers.   

President of Moldova’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry Sergiu Harea informed that about 40 publishing houses would take part in Bookfest. ‘’Annually, we organize over 60 exhibitions and fairs in the country and abroad; but we have two spiritual events. These are the Made in Moldova exhibition and Bookfest. Why Bookfest? As we want to return the kindness and the openness of our Romanian partners when we go to the Moldova Presents Exhibition, either to Bucharest, or to Cluj, Iasi, Timisoara. We also want to help the publishing houses from Romania which participate here and our young people to get acquainted with new publishing houses, with new books. We daily expect you to visit the exhibition, as there will be more novelties, you will know new publishing houses and you will surely not leave with empty hands, but you will find what you are looking for,’’ Sergiu Harea said.     

The president of the Union of Editors from Moldova, Gheorghe Prini, said that at this edition of Bookfest, those seven publishing houses of Moldova had scheduled the launch of about 20 book titles.  

The 2024 edition of the Bookfest International Book Salon is financed by the  Department for Relations with Moldova and takes place in partnership with the Culture Ministry of Romania and Culture Ministry of Moldova. The strategic partners are the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Ukaid and the Government of Sweden in Moldova. The organizers of the event are the National Library of Moldova, Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Moldova and the Association of Editors from Romania.   

Bookfest is the most important book salon of Romania and the only event of the editorial industry, which managed to acquire an outstanding international dimension. The first edition of Bookfest Chisinau was held in 2016.