Although the figures will not be known until tomorrow, Tuesday, the estimates seem to indicate that the billing and visitor data for the Madrid Book Fair – which was held from May 27 to June 12 in the Retiro Park – will be similar to those of 2019, the last year before the pandemic in which, in addition, all records were broken in this regard. "So there were 550,000 books sold and 10 million euros in sales" (approximately half of Sant Jordi), she recalls, from her office in the central booth of the venue, Eva Orúe, director of the event since January .
This year it has not been possible to maintain the tradition of having a guest country, because the uncertainty of the pandemic situation made the planned one withdraw without enough time to summon another, but the intention is to resume it in the 2023 edition. They have repeated the protests of the previous year for the spaces because, on the one hand, there is more space and, on the other, more exhibitors have been included, reducing the size of each booth a little.
"What's new this year, we don't know why, is that many more people come during the week," says Orúe. It has also been possible to verify that an increase in sales of the independent edition. All books at the fair are sold at a 10% discount.
Some romantics have lamented the removal of the public address system. “I think he is calmer without her, but we will have meetings to assess it. Think that the information loops during the weekend lasted up to an hour and a quarter of messages and we have tried to reduce noise pollution, we give it on the screens”.
"It hasn't rained any day, but it has been very hot." The success of sales of the first weekend —10% more than in 2019— extended during the first week but then the heat wave reduced attendance a bit, forcing some booths to close before the usual time and to cancel sessions signature.
Orúe highlights the good performance of the new mass signing spaces, with which the central part has been decongested. “The organization's effort to attract the young public and organize the long queues has given good results. We created four strategic spaces for those firms with the most influx of visitors and to maintain the route of the fair with adequate traffic”. To get an idea of the size of the event: there were a total of 5,881 signing sessions featuring 4,018 authors.
