Presentation of the Book Day, Sant Jordi 2022

The Book Chamber of Catalonia presents at the Ateneu Barcelonès the details of the celebration of the Day of the Book and the Rose throughout Catalonia on April 23rd.

This April 6 was held the press conference in which the details and news for the Day of the Book in Catalonia have been offered. The event was attended by Mr. Jordi Martí, Deputy Mayor of Culture, Education, Science and Community of the Barcelona City Council, Mr. Jordi Foz, Secretary-General of Culture, Mr. Patrici Tixis, President of the Book Chamber of Catalonia, and Mrs. M. Carme Ferrer, President of the Gremi de Libreters de Catalunya.

The Book Chamber is confident that in this Sant Jordi without restrictions there will be a turning point in the consolidation of the increase in the reading rate to help the recovery of the book sector.

The planned infrastructure has reported its own spaces for book professionals and the flower, especially in the case of Barcelona, with 12 spaces in 7 districts, there will be available the entire Paseo de Gracia. In several towns in Catalonia, bookstores and florists will be able to stand in front of their establishments on April 22 and 23 and have opted for an organizational model that facilitates the celebration of the festival with their own, large, and signposted spaces for book and rose professionals.

A more literary Book Day is recovered, with more offers, more stops, and more authors and signings, apart from the multiple parallel activities that revolve around the book and in coexistence with the celebration of entities and citizenship that for Sant Jordi will again fill squares and streets.

In this sense, the Guild of Booksellers of Catalonia will enable a microsite on its website where you can find all the bookstores in Catalonia and, as for Barcelona, the plans of the various professional spaces with the list of stops of each and links to their pages or networks to see their activities. «

There is a great desire to make and recover Sant Jordi, to meet with bookstores and authors, in the street. We are sure that it will result in a lot of participation and sales throughout Catalonia,» says M. Carme Ferrer, president of the Booksellers Guild. Patrici Tixis, president of the Chamber, believes that «this Sant Jordi can be a turning point in the consolidation of the increase in readership rates recorded both last years and to help the recovery of the book sector».

A model for the future

The chamber is convinced that this can be a «great Sant Jordi», with a level of sales similar to the previous edition of the pandemic, taking into account that in the last edition, conditioned by the restrictions, one million books were sold. To better organize the logistics, the chamber is committed to adapting the model implemented in the previous edition and grouping professionals from the world of books and florists in their own differentiated spaces, to give them visibility as an essential part of the festival, to have the necessary security conditions and to avoid crowds as much as possible. This model, applied to several towns, including Barcelona, is what we would like to see for the future of a festival in continuous growth and candidate to be declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity by Unesco. Surely, the fact that the festival takes place on a weekend will make the celebration higher in certain regions or increase the number of visitors to Barcelona. Thus, each municipality has adapted the festival to its characteristics and dimensions.

By way of example, book sellers and florists have agreed their own spaces in Gerona, Mataró, Terraza, Tarragona, Badalona, Lérida and Banyoles. As far as health measures are concerned, those determined by the authorities are taken. For the time being, no capacity limitation has been established for the different skill spaces. The spaces have been designed to facilitate the flow of the circuits as much as possible, with free areas in the surroundings and a layout of stops that favors circulation.

Barcelona will break the record with 300 stops

The 12 professional spaces in the city, spread over 7 districts, are as follows:

• Eixample: the great novelty is to have the entire Paseo de Gracia, from the Gran Vía to the Diagonal, with several transversals that will connect the Paseo with the Rambla de Catalunya, in an area that will be almost entirely closed to traffic. The aim is to facilitate the spacious circulation of people, creating internal circuits between the streets while configuring safer spaces. In addition, there will be professional spaces at the University and in the Paseo de San Juan, which is recovered after two years closed, for comics, graphic novels, children’s and young people’s literature, and family audiences.
• Ciutat Vella: after last year’s experience, it is betting again on the Plaza Real and Paseo de Lluís Companys, which will link with Paseo de Sant Juan. Also, there will be some stops on the Ramblas only for professionals of the district.
• Gracia: Plaza de la Villa and Plaza Salmerón.
• Les Corts: Diagonal, at Plaza Valdívia.
• Poble Nou: Rambla.
• Sant Andreu: Plaza de Orfila.
• Sarrià: Sarrià Square.

In total, in the city of Barcelona, there will be almost 300 stops, a record, in professional spaces, of which 170 with author signings and 103 of them in front of bookstores.