From October 15 to 19, Frankfurt's city center was once again transformed into a Mecca for literature enthusiasts. The city's OPEN BOOKS reading festival, which took place alongside the Frankfurt Book Fair, attracted 13,000 visitors
to 93 events this year - a remarkable success. With free admission, the new releases of the fall were presented in all literary genres. The readings took place in various venues around the Römer, creating a special atmosphere in the heart of Frankfurt.
The festive kick-off on Tuesday, October 15, was a large authors' evening on the Blue Sofa in the German National Library. Among the guests was the newly crowned Book Prize winner Martina Hefter. In the following days, renowned authors such as Anne Applebaum, Dmitry Glukhovsky, Daniela Krien and Volker Klüpfel appeared and offered the audience a varied literary program.
Frankfurt's Head of Culture and Science, Ina Hartwig, was delighted with this year's response: "OPEN BOOKS perfectly complemented the Frankfurt Book Fair, which was held under the motto 'Reading! The mixture of top-class authors
and free accessibility attracted more visitors than ever before. It is particularly pleasing that many took the opportunity to purchase books directly from the independent booksellers. This clearly shows that books are alive and well, and Frankfurt is playing its part with OPEN BOOKS."
The director of the reading festival, Sonja Vandenrath, also expressed her satisfaction: "We had an incredibly mixed, curious and open-minded audience. The enthusiasm of the visitors was transferred to the authors, who signed many books after the readings. The demand in advance was so great that we had to reprint our program booklet - and even long queues didn't stop anyone from attending the readings." She also thanked the dedicated organization team and the publishers who worked closely with OPEN BOOKS.
In addition to the regular programme, there were also numerous guest events, including from the Frankfurter Rundschau, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. A special highlight was the children's program OPEN BOOKS KIDS on 19 October, which attracted many young visitors to the German National Library.
The reading festival ended on Saturday with a colorful Frankfurt evening at the Volksbühne am Großen Hirschgraben, leaving behind an enthusiastic audience that is already looking forward to the next edition of OPEN BOOKS.
