Belgrade Fair it seems that he was not informed that this October on International Book Fair there will be no leading publishers, such as for example Laguna, so he still announces his release this year.
Namely, the Board of Directors of the Association of Publishers and Booksellers of Serbia (UIKS), which gathers around 140 publishers, decided at the session on August 6 to "suggest to its members" that they abandon the Book Fair.
Who will not participate in the Book Fair?
At that same session, most members of the UIKS Executive Board had already decided that they would not participate this year.
These are: Laguna, Delphi, Creative Center, Magic Book, Parthenon, Pčelica, Dereta, Finesa, IPC Media and Kontrast.
More than twenty members Association of Professional Publishers (UPIS), led by Archipelago, Geopoetica and Clio, did not participate in last year's Book Fair, and in March they announced that they will not be there until the conditions under which they exhibit at the Fair change.
Those conditions have not changed.
Publishers consider them unacceptable.
Board without publisher
In March of this year, a new one was elected The Board of the Book Fair, in which there was no publisher. Jelena Medaković, Secretary for Culture of Belgrade, told "Vreme" on that occasion that "it is not a legal obligation for publishers to be part of the Board, but they can certainly participate in the work through direct communication and initiative. Not a single initiative will be ignored."
In the minutes of the aforementioned UIKS meeting, it is written that "because of this attitude of the Book Fair Board and the City Secretariat for Culture, they first sent a letter with the request that this attitude be changed urgently and that the publishers be included in the Fair Board as soon as possible. We have not received a reply to that letter."
In May, they reiterated once again that they want to be full members of the Board of the Book Fair. After that, they had no more contact with the organizers of the Book Fair.
Relocation of the Book Fair to Surčin
They point out that they were ready to participate in the work of the Book Fair Board, among other things, "due to the initiation of many issues and initiatives related to the planned relocation of the Fair to the new location EXPO 27 in Surčin".
They believe that "changing the location of the Fair will be an extremely big and dangerous challenge for the further fate of the Book Fair in Belgrade. Unfortunately, the organizers of the Book Fair do not see publishers as constructive collaborators in the organization of the Book Fair, which is completely unacceptable," the minutes say.
They remind that "due to all these problems, the number of visitors to the Book Fair was significantly reduced last year, and as the continuation of that trend can be expected this year, it is an additional reason for many publishers to reconsider their participation. The additional increase in costs and prices related to the organization of appearances at the Fair is also not without significance for the final decision to participate."
They are the foundation of publishing.
The deadline for making a decision on participation in the Book Fair expires on August 20. It is expected that the other members of the Board of Directors of the Association of Publishers and Booksellers will also decide not to participate.
The publishers who are members of these two associations, the Association of Publishers and Booksellers led by Laguna and the Association of Professional Publishers led by Clio, are the basis of local publishing. Without them in the fair halls, the Book Fair can only formally exist.
According to the organizers, the Fair had a record 203.350 visitors in 2024, while in 2025 there were 134.750, which is a drop of 34 percent.
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