"Bookland" Gathered More Than 73,000 Guests: The Festival Broke Its Own Attendance Record

This time the event gathered even more visitors and participants.

The second festival was memorable for a large number of various activities and interactives. At the festival, in particular, a national record was set for simultaneous reading (114 guests read aloud poems by Vasyl Stus), the most popular book was chosen according to book bloggers ("Zhovtolyka" by Rebecca Kwan, publishing house "George"), family readings were held with stars: Dantes, Andriy Bednyakov , Anna Zavalska and others.

And they also held separate programs about military art, the combination of cinema and literature, fantasy and horror genres, feminist books; learned new things at workshops and, of course, met all together at the fair, which gathered 120 participants: publishing houses, bookstores and individual authors.

In total, more than 350 events took place at the Book Country. The most popular were the presentation of Rostislav Semkiv's book "How to read Ukrainian classics", the autograph session of the writer Vasyl Shklyar, which lasted more than 3 hours, as well as the musical and poetic evening "Metaromantika".

"From the very beginning, my wife Diana, who owns the idea of ​​the festival, and I planned to make it a regular event," says Evgeny Mushkin, founder of Book Country. — And we are incredibly happy that this dream is coming true. This time we saw a lot of familiar faces: this means that the festival becomes a meeting place for like-minded people. At the same time, we are proud that we were able to attract a new audience. And the reviews show that all guests became happier after visiting Bookland. And most of all, the children who read books while sitting around the fountain in our poufs delight. We can confidently say that we are on the right track."

In total, the second "Book Country" gathered 73,000 guests. The festival continues to confirm the reputation of the event for a wide audience: the average age of visitors was 31 years, while almost every fourth festival guest is a schoolboy or student. For more than half of the visitors, "Book Country" was the first such festival. Residents of not only Kyiv and the region, but also Mykolaiv, Lviv, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava, Vinnytsia and others came to the event.

According to preliminary estimates of the organizers, 86,500 books were purchased at the festival. Two-thirds of visitors bought at least one book at the festival, spending an average of about UAH 800. At the same time, more than 60% of guests said that "Bookland" inspired them to read more, and 99% said that they became happier thanks to the festival and its atmosphere. The most popular books at the festival were:

Vivat - "Tress from the Emerald Sea" (Brandon Sanderson), "The Fine Print" (Lauren Usher);

"Laboratory" — "The earth is behind the digging" (Anastasia Levkova), "Where the sun sets" (Olena Pshenichna), "The train arrives on schedule." Stories of people and the railway" (Marichka Paplauskaite);

Publishing house "Ranok" — "Alex Neptune. The Dragon Thief" (David Owen), "Detective Cat Alf" (Yulita Run), "Patron Dog and Big T" (Yulita Run, Katya Podlisna);

Nasha Idea - "Good Morning Punpune" (Inio Asano), "The Summer When Hikaru Died" (Mokumokuren), "The Life of a Cat" (Konami Kanata);

"George" - "Jade City" (Fonda Lee);

"One more page" - "Virgin, mother and third" (Yulia Nagorniuk);

RM - "Six Crimson Cranes" (Elizabeth Lim);

ARTBOOKS — Evelyn Hugo's Seven Men (Taylor Jenkins Reed), Pachinko (Min Jin Lee), Educated (Tara Westover);

Readberry - "Children of the Fiery Time" (Kateryna Pekur);

"Bookworm" - "Neighborly Agreement" (Ashley Alison);

KM-Books - "Little Life" (Ganya Yanagigara);

Publishing House "Publishing House" — "Anna, whom I loved" (Pavla Vilna);

KSD - "Spoiled" (Penelope Douglas);

"Tak" publishing house - "Ashes are falling to the sky" (Nin Gorman, Mathieu Gibe).

"This year, on the one hand, we added even more interactive features to "Bookland" - records, awards, meetings - and on the other hand, we deepened the profile, genre areas. And this approach worked: the level of attendance, as well as feedback from participants — publishers, authors, speakers — show us that this format has a great future. Already with the new experience and the wishes of the participants, we will continue to improve: we will change the zoning of the directions, increase the quality of services and, of course, improve the filling," says the head of "Book Country" Ludmila Fit.

A number of charitable events took place within the festival, and six funds and organizations were represented: "Stork-Ukraine", "Cultural Airborne", "Gurkit", "Swarm", "Recruiting Center of TRO Forces" and "Help Front". In particular, "Stork-Ukraine" collected UAH 335,000, with which it will purchase equipment for front-line medics, charity games with writers - more than UAH 67,000, and "Cultural Landing" - 344 books within the framework of the "Book to the Front" initiative.

In addition, there was a place for loud announcements at the Book Country. Thus, the bookstore-cafe book.ua announced the opening of its own establishment on VDNG — this will be the third and largest location of the chain. A space of 400 m² with a cozy yard with a view of the orchard will accommodate thousands of books from Ukrainian and foreign publishers, a large selection of coffee, desserts and delicacies, as well as an event zone for holding cultural events: book presentations, lectures and workshops.

The organizers are already announcing the dates of the festival for next year: the spring "Book Country" will take place from April 24 to 27, and the autumn one - September 25-28.

Follow the next announcements of "Bookland" on the official Facebook and Instagram pages of the festival.