The Gothenburg book fair has now closed for this time, the first physical book fair since the pandemic.
Just before closing, the preliminary visitor figure was counted at 82,156 people, slightly lower than 2019's 86,132. But the record has actually been broken.
New for this year is that the fair has been held digitally in parallel with the physical one.
If you include the approximately 7,000 digital guests, the Book Fair comes out of the pandemic stronger.
- Many have discovered the Book Fair play during the pandemic and have chosen to take part in the seminars digitally this year as well.
But we also see that very many of those who have seen the seminars digitally in the last two years have come and seen them physically now, says Frida Edman, fair manager.
Many of the seminars have been full, she says.
Long queues wound both for the book signing with the children's idols I Just Want To Be Cool and for the lecture "Diplomatic summit" with Jan Eliasson and Staffan de Mistura.
- That says something about the width.
It's really a great feeling that the audience is back and the atmosphere has been magical, says Edman.
Next year's book fair will have two themes, "Jewish culture" and "The city".