After the years of the pandemic and last year's inclement weather, this year Sant Jordi will return to the Rambla and will also occupy a large part of Gran de Gràcia, maintaining at the same time the supermanzana model that was implemented in the previous edition in Paseo de grace This Jew explained some of the news of the Book and Rose Day celebration, in a press conference with the president of the Chamber of Books, Patrici Tixis; the president of the Booksellers Guild, Éric del Arco; the Minister of Culture, Natàlia Garriga; the deputy mayor of Culture of Barcelona, Jordi Martí, and the manager of the Booksellers Guild, Marià Marín.
The recovery of the Rambla, a space that is symbolic of this festivity and that was lost with the covid, and the expansion to Gran de Gràcia, will make it possible to add 10% of space to the book and rose stalls, with the intention that you can walk around and look at books with relative peace of mind, contrary to other years when the density of buyers was very high. Thus, it is expected to exceed the 400 positions last year, distributed in 12 spaces in seven districts of Barcelona, in the Eixample, Ciutat Vella, Gràcia, Les Corts, Poblenou, Sant Andreu and Sarrià-Sant Gervasi.
Tixis has highlighted that a model has been consolidated that makes it possible to make professional stands compatible with entities and the popular festival, so that "everyone can feel welcome".
Del Arco explained that the rate of registrations at the moment is similar to last year, and that it is expected to increase a bit, but he did not risk predicting that the increase in space for books and roses could translate into the same increase of sales. Regarding the book distribution problems that have occurred in recent months, Del Arco said that right now the EntreDos platform is working at 98% and the situation can be understood as normalized. Tixis recalled that the billing figures this year are similar to those of last year, which were exceptional.
The manager of the Gremi de Llibreters, Marià Marín, has detailed that Paseo de Gràcia will remain as it was last year –with the exception of Consell de Cent street, under construction– closed to traffic. He also explained that they plan to make recommendations to all the municipalities in Catalonia, but "there are 947 municipalities, each with a different reality." In principle, in Girona, Tarragona and Lleida, the same spaces that had been set up last year before the threat of bad weather forced some location changes will be maintained.
Tixis has acknowledged that in Barcelona "there is no B plane" due to bad weather, but that they do not expect a storm like last year. Of course, "the stands have to be professional and approved". Jordi Martí has ensured that the City Council "will monitor the weather very well" to be cautious, because after all "what happened last year is a lesson for everyone".
Martí also explained that the Món Llibre children's festival will be held in Barcelona the previous weekend, "which coincides with the announcement that the city will become the capital of children's and youth literature in 2028" -this same weekend it will be held in the Design HUB the FLiC, Children's and Youth Literature and Arts Festival–, and the Sant Jordi Dialogues will also be held for yet another year, with eleven guest writers. The prologue for Sant Jordi this year, on the 22nd, will be written by the writer Gemma Ruiz –she has just published Les nostres mares (Proa)–.
Minister Garriga, for her part, recalled that the role of the administrations here is "to accompany the work of the unions in the festival par excellence of Catalan culture", and recalled that the festival of Sant Jordi shares the same purposes as Pla National Book and Reading: "More readers, more habitual and in Catalan".
Catalan version, here
