Festivals and special markets for books are fantastic. I love it when books are celebrated like that! In The Netherlands we have a couple of these events. Of course there are many festivities celebrating “the book” around the world. Today I present one of them. From May 24 until June 3 there is a book festival in Hay-on-Wye in Wales. Bill Clinton called it: “The Woodstock of the mind”. You can visit the site here. The website site also gives dates of other literary festivals.
If you know of any bookish festivals, please post them in the comments. That way, it could become some sort of global bookish agenda! Do not forget to post the date, the place and a link. If it becomes an extensive list, I will put it in the side bar for reference.
Thanks to Virginia mailing me about he Hay-on-Wye festival.
Kimbooktu.com 
Um… Hay on Wye isn’t in Wales. On the Welsh border, true, but still in England.
I will start the list of bookish events:
What:
Deventer Book market, the biggest open air used book market of Europe. (Six kilometres of book stands!)
Where:
The city of Deventer in The Netherlands
When:
Sunday 5. August 2007
Links:
A map of the market in PDF-format: http://www.vvvdeventer.nl/pdf/boekenmarkt2006.pdf
The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books takes place on Saturday and Sunday, April 28-29 on the gorgeous UCLA campus in west L.A. This festival is one of the–if not THE–top U.S. book festival. About 140,000 people attend, there are more than 300 authors, 325 booths, 100 panels and presentations and books galone. And it’s all free (except for an $8 charge for parking). The people who organize this do a fantastic job. This is–if possible–not to be missed, and one of my favorite events of the year.
That said, I want to go the Hay festival. Very, very, very much.
[…] 7:31 pm I posted about bookish festivals before. Make sure you enter your local bookish festivals here! I found one that is worth a separate mention. Every year on April 1. the “Edible book […]
11 to 27th August 2007
Edinburgh International Book Festival http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/
24 to 28th October 2007
11th Independent Radical Book Fare for Alternative Books
http://www.word-power.co.uk/book_fair
Here’s one I attended last year – lots of great info for writers & readers who want to know more about how the publishing industry works:
Virginia Festival of the Book
March 21-25, 2007 in Charlottesville, VA
featuring readings, panels, and discussions with authors, illustrators and publishing professionals.
These five days of mostly free literary events are open to the public as we honor book culture and promote reading and literacy.
http://www.vabook.org/
Birmingham Public Library has an annual book fair celebrating Alabama authors and publishers. http://www.alabamabound.org
[…] over six kilometres. You can learn more about it by translating this website via Babel Fish. (Click here to see some more book markets and festivals around the […]