Algeria: The management of the Algiers International Book Fair announced that its 25th session, which was closed on Friday, has recorded the attendance of more than one million and 300 thousand visitors.
“The 25th session has registered, by the end of Thursday, 1.3 million visitors, not counting children and pregnant women,” said Mohamed Iqrab, head of the exhibition, in a press conference on Friday.
He pointed out that 100,000 people visited the exhibition’s virtual platform, as well as selling dozens of titles through it and delivering them to their owners in various governorates of the country.
According to the spokesman, the number of visitors to the exhibition’s account on Facebook reached more than 8 million.
Iqrab added that “the current session has programmed more than 50 cultural events that dealt with the topics of memory, history, literature, and art.”
The activities of the current edition of the book fair, which was officially launched on the 24th of last March, witnessed the participation of 1250 Algerian, Arab, and foreign publishing houses representing 36 countries, including Turkey and Italy as the guest of honor.
It also featured about 300,000 titles in various fields.
Before the launch of the 25th session, which was organized under the slogan “The Book is the Bridge of Memory”, the director in charge of the Directorate of Books at the Algerian Ministry of Culture, Hassan Monjour, announced that 185 titles were banned from participating because they harmed religion, identity and the laws of the republic.
The course recorded the participation of several novelists, including the Algerians, Wassini Al-Araj and Amin Al-Zawi, the Jordanian Jalal Barjas and the Kuwaiti Buthaina Al-Issa, in addition to young writers and cultural figures.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had decided to exempt publishing houses from the costs of renting the exhibition pavilions, in order to promote and develop cultural production and encourage reading.
This edition was organized after a two-year hiatus due to the circumstances of the Corona pandemic.
