Bahia Book Biennial 2024 comes to an end with a record audience of more than 100 thousand visitors – Portal IN – Pompeu Vasconcelos

“The people of Bahia welcomed the Biennale with open arms and, without a doubt, it is already the biggest edition of all time. This all reinforces the size and importance of the Biennale as the largest and main literature and culture event in the Northeast. Soon, we will launch the next edition for 2026, with the expectation of once again surpassing these numbers”, said the general director of the Bahia Book Biennial, Tatiana Zaccaro.

The Bahia 2024 Book Biennial was presented by the Government of the State of Bahia and supported by the Municipality of Salvador. It also had sponsorship from Itaú, BIC and Bahiagás, support from Salvador Shopping and Rede Bahia, in addition to institutional support from the Book Editors Union (Snel).

Jerônimo Rodrigues, Governor of Bahia, visiting the Biennale, declared that “the book has the potential to make people travel, dream, create. We have made a lot of progress, but the participation of Brazilians and Bahians, in terms of the number of books read during the year, is still relatively low. We have to get out of four books a year to reach at least one book a month. We want people to be interested in reading because when we encourage this, we also encourage writing.”

Bruno Reis, Mayor of Salvador, recalled, at the opening ceremony, that the Biennale resumed its usual periodicity with the 2022 edition and the effort was worth it. “Salvador was, during the Biennale days, the main stage in Brazil for writers and readers. It is important to encourage the habit of reading in children, so that they have intellectual training. Itamar is an example of encouragement and we are here so that Bahia can continue to be a cradle of Brazilian culture, encouraging the arrival of new talents. It is with great pride that the city hall supports this event”, he said.

This year, all the spaces at the Bahia Book Biennial – Café Literário, Arena Jovem and Espaço Infantil Janelas Encantadas – were expanded and more people were able to enjoy the activities in a more comfortable way. The event also welcomed thousands of students from municipal and state public schools. Buses and tourist vans occupied the parking lot of the Salvador Convention Center, bringing teachers and students from different neighborhoods of the capital and cities such as Candeias, Cipó, Retirolândia, Camaçari, Vitória da Conquista and others.

Another novelty was the presence of four of the largest publishers in the country, who made their debuts at the event: Companhia das Letras, Rocco, HarperCollins Brasil and Globo Livros. They join other companies in the literary segment, such as Cortez, Mostarda and Malê, which return to the Biennale after the great repercussion and sales success achieved in the previous edition. The arrival of these four major brands positioned the Bienal Bahia as a national literary event, and no longer a regional one. This market approval originated from the demand of the Bahian public itself, as the presence of the aforementioned publishers came in response to numerous requests from readers.

“We will be present here in the next edition and who knows, with even greater participation. The numbers for this edition were positive, our books have been well displayed and kids are buying a lot of books. Our authors are loving the experience and are being very well received. So, this is a sign of success and that we have to continue”, pondered Max Santos, from Cia das Letras, during the fourth day of the Bahia Book Biennial.

Responsible for the Escariz Livraria stand, Felipe Santos revealed that on the third day of the Biennale the stand had already reached its sales target. On the fourth day, more than 6,400 books were sold. The best-selling work during the Bahian event was “The midnight library”, by Matt Haig, followed by “Café com Deus pai”, by Junior Rostirola and “Torto Arado”, by Bahian Itamar Vieira Júnior, winner of the Jabuti Prize and the Oceanos Prize and one of the guests on the first day of the Café Literário.

Friends Sophia Gomes, 14, and Fátima Silva, 13, met reading Turma da Mônica comic books, four years ago, and visited the event accompanied by Micheline Silva, Fátima’s mother. Sophia completed the collection of books by the American poet Amanda Lovelace, taking the only two she didn’t already have, and Fátima acquired the series ‘The last young people on Earth’, by Max Brallier. “The cool thing here is that not only can you buy books, but it also becomes a meeting point to talk about them. The program is really cool and here we can still have a snack with our eyes on the sea”, comments Micheline, who attended the event over two days.

The Bahia Book Biennial featured more than 170 authors, personalities and artists, offering more than 100 hours of activities and 200 exhibiting brands. Among the guests, international authors, such as Abdi Nazemian and Scholastique Mukasonga, and some of the main exponents of contemporary Brazilian literature, such as Itamar Vieira Jr, Glicéria Tupinambá, Pedro Rhuas, Paula Pimenta, Raphael Montes, Socorro Acioli, Thalita Rebouças, Jeferson Tenório, Nath Finances, Rodrigo França, Elayne Baeta, Kaká Werá, Emília Nuñes, Christian Dunker and Rita Batista; as well as celebrities such as Daniela Mercury, Tiganá Santana and Zélia Duncan.