Madrid Book Fair arrives for the first time at the regional parliament

Eva Orúe, director of the Book Fair appears in the Assembly of Madrid to claim its importance in the Spanish cultural industry.

The Madrid Book Fair has made its first appearance in the Assembly of Madrid through the appearance of its new director, Eva Orúe, in the Culture Committee held this Tuesday, in which she has claimed the support of the political institutions of Madrid.

The fair of this 81st edition, whose motto «Leaf through the world» is dedicated to travel, leaves its usual enclave to celebrate its beginning and arrives at the autonomous parliament of Madrid to remind the institutions that the most important cultural event in the country is ready to welcome visitors from everywhere, also from outside the community.

In its 81st edition, the fair comes to the Assembly of Madrid to claim its importance in the Spanish cultural industry.

Orúe warned during his speech that «the block support of the political parties that represent the citizens of Madrid in this Assembly is crucial for us if we want to maintain and enhance the importance of a cultural event that, believe me, has international relevance and carries the name of Madrid halfway around the world».

The last edition of the full fair, that of 2019, received 2,300,000 visits, of which around 25% came from outside the city of Madrid, that is, from the rest of the community and other Spanish provinces. This 81st edition is the largest in size, with 378 booths and more than 400 exhibitors, and is also expected to be the largest in terms of attendance, authors, sales, and a cultural echo of the 21st century.

Eva Orúe, director of the Madrid Book Fair: «Everything is ready to welcome visitors from all over Spain».

In this sense, the director of the fair emphasized during her speech the obvious economic impact of what she described as the largest popular book fair in the world for the sector, which employs almost 50,000 workers and, in its last edition, raised more than 10 million euros.

Symbol of the recovery of the cultural sector

For her part, the socialist deputy, Manuela Villa stressed that the fair «in addition to being a space for the sale of books, is a popular event that attracts a spectacular number of visitors in 17 days, similar to that recorded by other cultural spaces in the capital throughout the year. After the last crises, small publishers and bookstores are waiting for this time of the year as an oxygen balloon to boost their business in one of the most appreciated cultural events by the public».

From the popular parliamentary group, the deputy Juan Soler-Espiauba has referred to the fair as one of the social milestones of the Community of Madrid, and in his opinion, «a space that has extraordinary possibilities to bring the wide proposal of publishers and authors to the whole society, among them, that of children’s books».

The deputy of Unidas Podemos, Serigne Mbayé, trusts that, now that the health situation has improved and the administrations have relaxed the COVID-19 containment measures, this edition of the fair will be, at last, a symbol of recovery of the cultural sector and the queues and crowds that discouraged readers last year will not be repeated.

From Vox, Gonzalo Babé has asked the director of the fair to manage an edition far from ideological indoctrination, without the «feminist sectarianism» that can be exercised, in his opinion, through activities such as the tribute to Almudena Grandes, scheduled for June 11.

The deputy of Más Madrid, Jazmín Beirak, has defended the celebration of the tribute while subscribing to the words of Orúe, who explained that «Almudena Grandes was the fair» for the great work she did signing in small bookstores.

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