The London Book Fair and the Bologna Children's Book Fair, after coordinating their schedules, have announced the respective dates for their trade shows in 2017. LBF, which in recent years has been scheduled in April, will be moving to March; the show is set for March 14-16. Bologna will take place April 3-6.
The dates, the fair organizers said, reflect an effort to ensure industry members don't deal with a "bottleneck" of trade fairs. The team behind the London event also noted that this stretch reflects "the best dates available within a very crowded event schedule" at its venue, Olympia.
BolognaFiere, which oversees the Bologna show, said placing the fair in early April would not only put space between it and LBF, it would also help alleviate any potential overlap with other international events happening that month in the Italian city.
Jacks Thomas, of the team behind LBF, said moving the show to March in 2017 "seemed to be the best solution to a logistical problem of these two important shows otherwise being back-to-back." Thomas added that moving LBF on the calendar addresses longstanding concerns industry members have expressed about the show happening so close to Bologna which, historically, has also been scheduled in April. Jacks said that LBF is hoping the industry "will be pleased with this decision."
The fair organizers at both events, who also coordinated this year's dates, noted that, in 2016, concessions have been made to try alleviate overlap between the events--LBF is set for April 12-14 and Bologna for April 4---with exhibitors at both shows being given early access to Bologna and late access to London.
