2024 Guadalajara International Book Fair breaks attendance record

After crunching numbers this week, organizers of the Guadalajara International Book Fair (Feria Internacional de Libro, or FIL) are reporting that this year’s annual event, which wrapped up on Sunday, attracted record attendance numbers — with nearly 1 million industry executives and book fans showing up for the weeklong festival.

A whopping 907,300 attendees came through the Guadalajara Expo’s doors between Nov. 30 and Dec. 8, just shy of 50,000 more than last year’s figure of 857,315. The number also breaks the FIL’s previous attendance record from the 2019 event, which occurred not long before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down public events across Mexico.

“This year’s fair exceeded our expectations in every way,” Marisol Schulz Manaut, general director of the FIL told the U.S. publishing industry trade newspaper Publishers Weekly.

Organizers said that the fair also exceeded other expectations: The number of publishing companies with stands at the FIL this year was 2,769, an increase of 294 from last year. Also, 18,100 industry professionals attended as guests this year, up by 700 from 2023.

University of Guadalajara Rector Ricardo Villanueva Lormelí told the newspaper El Economista that FIL’s numbers this year “broke all the records that the fair has,” making it likely that next year, they would expand the FIL outside its traditional home at the Guadalajara Expo and add satellite locations around the city.

The event, founded in 1987 by former University of Guadalajara rector Raúl Padilla López, attracts publishers and industry executives from Spain, Mexico and Latin America, as well as from non-Spanish-speaking countries around the world, such as Norway, Taiwan and Italy. Increasingly, that list of countries includes the U.S., where demand for Spanish-language content from Latin America is increasing.

Publishers Weekly noted that 150 U.S. librarians this year attended the fair through FIL’s Free Pass Program with the American Library Association. The program helps U.S. librarians acquire Spanish-language materials.

The event is also increasingly becoming a must-visit for publishers and movie companies looking to make translation, licensing or film-rights deals.

“Audiences aren’t just seeking stories set in Latin America,” said Carla Cumming Rivero, an attendee who is the development manager for Mexico and Latin America with the television and film agency Scenic Rights. “They want stories told by Latin Americans, with cultural nuances and perspectives that only local creators can provide,” she told Publishers Weekly.

The FIL is also a required stop for aspiring children’s book illustrators in Latin America, who network with publishers and professionals and can have their portfolio assessed affordably by a professional. Many also attend the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, an event within an event held at FIL that this year launched the Bologna Portfolio Prize, a new award recognizing illustrators early in their career. Aspiring writers also take advantage of the affordable writing and marketing workshops led by authors and industry professionals.

But the Guadalajara weeklong event, whose entrance fee is a highly affordable 25 pesos (US $1.24), also attracts a large number of book lovers each year, drawn in by the chance to see their favorite authors in person, buy books directly from publishers and mingle with other aficionados.

“The FIL is unique in that it is a significant trade show, yes, but it is also a major book festival,” Ethan Nosowsky, an editorial director at the Minneapolis publisher Graywolf Press told Publishers Weekly. “I love that the fair opens up to an enthusiastic public who are buying books directly from publisher stands, where they are generously displayed, and where young and old pack halls for author events.”

According to Schulz, publishers participating this year reported an estimated 35% increase in their sales, and, overall, the event took in about 124 million pesos (US $6.1 million), organizers told the newspaper La Jornada.

With reports from El Economista, La Jornada and Publishers Weekly