Bookfest International Book Fair 2025: Romania’s Largest Book Fair Returns to Bucharest

The 18th edition of the Bookfest International Book Fair will start in Bucharest on Wednesday, and until Sunday, the greatest books at the best prices will be available in Pavilion B2 at Romexpo Exhibitional Centre. The largest book fair in Romania, Bookfest International Book Fair, is returning to the cultural events landscape in the capital. This year’s Bookfest, which will be held at the Romexpo Exhibition Complex in Bucharest, close to the MoBu International Art Fair, from May 28 to June 1, 2025, is expected to attract over 100,000 attendees.

Bookfest 2025 is predicted to be a success for a number of reasons, including tens of thousands of titles with amazing cover price discounts, book launches with authors present, children’s events, round tables and debates focused on current guild issues, film screenings, and interactive events. The public is welcome to attend any Bookfest event for free, and they can do so for 10 to 20 hours per day.

Portugal is the honored guest for this season, and it provides book lovers with a varied schedule that includes activities that showcase popular culture that young readers love, as well as debates and premieres of great Portuguese novels.

Public entry to the salon and all related events during Bookfest will be free, just like in previous years.

The previous edition of the Bookfest International Book Fair included more than 170 exhibitors and a five-day schedule with more than 400 events, from debates and launches to film screenings and interactive events. Moldova was the 2023 edition’s guest of honour. Italy, Japan, Spain, Hungary, France, the German-speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Poland, the Czech Republic, Israel, Sweden, and the United States of America were among the countries invited to the international editions of previous years.

Additionally, there is an international edition of the Bookfest Book Fair in Chisinau, as well as local editions in Timisoara, Cluj-Napoca, Târgu Mureş, and Braşov.

The 2025 edition’s guest of honor, Portugal, chose the motto “Where the sea ends and the earth awaits” from José Saramago’s 1998 Novel Prize winner, “The Year of Ricardo Reis.”

There will be 25 events dedicated to Portuguese literature and culture, including authors and publishing industry executives from Portugal and Romania.

A series of dialogues between Portuguese guests and Romanian specialists on topics including journalism and cultural entrepreneurship, reading as a tool for dialogue and democracy, enhancing cultural diversity, etc., will take place on May 28 and 29.

The stand will feature a wide range of genres and historical periods, such as the latest Portuguese novels, children’s books, theater, and 12th-century Portuguese poetry. The second half of the fair, which runs from May 30 to June 1, will be dedicated exclusively to literary events, featuring Portuguese writers engaging with Romanian writers.

Bookfest will bring Romanian readers together with two winners of the esteemed Jose Saramago Prize. Both the 2001 winner, Jose Luis Peixoto, and the 2005 winner, Goncalo M. Tavares, have been translated into Romanian with success.

Bookfest 2025, which honors both literary heritage and modern voices from the Lusophone world, promises to be a lively cultural interaction between Portugal and Romania.