The now cancelled Brussels event was twelve weeks away. Bologna is 14 weeks away. London is 16 weeks away. Let’s hope we do not see a repeat of the London 2020 farce and repeat London farce in 2021 when the LBF stubbornly put self-interest before its obligations to its exhibitors and visitors.
Even before Omichron came along there was a big question mark hanging over the western spring book fair season. The fairytale fantasy that vaccines would somehow erase the virus from existence has seen at best a slight weakening in the Pandemic’s wrath, which with easily predictable hindsight had more to do with seasonal change than medicine.
Now winter is, almost, back with a vengeance, with new lockdowns across parts of Russia and all of Latvia and Austria, and with Germany and UK among those desperately trying to juggle much-needed new restrictions against the political cost of limiting trade this close to Christmas.
Western publishing, which historically focusses so much on the last few weeks of the year, is holding its breath waiting to see what happens next amid a trade landscape already scarred by “supply-chain” issues.
The decision, announced today, to cancel the 2022 Brussels Book Fair is a courageous one.
The appearance of a new variant of covid, the current sanitary restrictions and the lack of visibility on the sanitary situation in three months do not assure us of being able to welcome a public and a sufficient number of exhibitors in safe conditions. optimal in March 2022. Faced with so many uncertainties, it is with infinite regret and sadness that we are forced to postpone the next edition of the Brussels Book Fair.
This year we saw a much-reduced Frankfurt Book Fair scrape by by the skin of its teeth as Covid-19 concerns mounted with the arrival of autumn.
We know from bitter experience that full-blown winter and a late spring will embolden the Pandemic across Europe, and the Omichron development merely rubs salt into already open wounds.
In fairness to Bologna and London, it’s perhaps too soon to make final decisions about the fate of these two key spring publishing events, but the same concerns raised by Brussels apply.
The appearance of a new variant of covid, the current sanitary restrictions and the lack of visibility on the sanitary situation in three months do not assure being able to welcome a public and a sufficient number of exhibitors in safe conditions
The just cancelled Brussels event was twelve weeks away. Bologna is 14 weeks away. London is 16 weeks away.
Let’s hope we do not see a repeat of the London 2020 farce and repeat London farce in 2021 when the LBF stubbornly put self-interest before its obligations to its exhibitors and visitors.
2020:
2021:
