Bologna 2025 program announced

Bologna Children’s Book Fair (BCBF), which this year runs 31 March to 3 April 2025 at the BolognaFiere Exhibition Centre, has released its full program.

Running alongside BCBF is BolognaBookPlus (BBP), an event for general trade publishing organised in collaboration with the Association of Italian Publishers (AIE), and the Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids (BLTF).

This year, the book fair will welcome 1500 exhibitors from 90 countries and regions of the world, including for the first time: Albania, Azerbaijan, Ecuador, Georgia, Guatemala, Iceland, Madagascar, Malta, North Macedonia, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka and Thailand, reports BookBrunch. The 2025 Country Guest of Honour is Estonia.

The fair will include the inaugural Games Business Centre in collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair, as well as the TV/Film Rights Centre for a second year. Exhibitions include the Illustrators Exhibition; the exhibition of the Country Guest of Honour, Estonia; solo exhibitions of Sydney Smith and Henrique Moreira; an exhibition tracing the development of the BCBF 2025 visual identity, created by the Brazilian Bruno de Almeida; Chinese Excellence in Children’s Illustration; a selection of works from the exhibition ‘The Original Art’, by the Society of Illustrators of New York; an exhibition curated by the Book Arsenal Festival Kiev; and an exhibition of African illustration as part of the ‘Make-A-Picturebook’ Project.

Awards to be presented at the book fair include the BolognaRagazzi Awards, the Bologna Prize for the Best Children’s Publishers of the Year, and the Strega Ragazze e Ragazzi Prize, which promotes reading among young people.

Running outside the exhibition halls, the BOOM! Crescere nei libri program will include more than 100 artists across 40 exhibitions and 150 events, held at libraries, schools and cultural venues throughout the city of Bologna.

More information about BCBF, BBP and BLTF is available on the BCBF website.

Category: International news