The Book Fair, inaugurated in 1988, was held for the eighth year running in 1996. Over the years, the number of visitors has increased from 90,000 to 232.000 and that of exhibitors from 500 to more than 1250. In the early years, until 1991, the Fair was held in the pavilions of Torino Esposizioni, Turin’s traditional exhibition centre near the Parco del Valentino on the banks of the Po.
It was subsequently moved to Lingotto, a former car factory restructured by Renzo Piano with new improved infrastructure (car parks, restaurants, conference halls and a hotel). Between 1993 and 1996, the new venue, with the addition of a Conference Centre and a new 2,000-seater Auditorium with acoustics unrivalled anywhere in Europe, welcomed over 200,000 visitors to its conference rooms for meetings with Italian and foreign writers and critics, transforming the cultural promotion of the book world into a collective event.
In the eight years since its birth, the Book Fair has attracted close on a million visitors from all over Italy, 15% of whom youngsters of every age and 10% teachers and members of the trade. In 1996 alone, the first category accounted for almost 14,000 visitors, the second for about 9,000.
Press and media coverage, sizeable from the outset, has increased considerably over the years. To date, 150 hours of radio time and almost 700 hours of national TV time have been devoted to the event. At the last Fair alone, no fewer than 2,650 journalists were accredited.
Encouraged by such heartening results, the Book Fair has now decided to widen the horizons of its cultural promotion activity. It has been supported and encouraged in its intent by a wide variety of initiatives. One of these, the Music Fair project, the result of a year of painstaking analysis and preparation, will both reflect and repeat the Book Fair. The theme will be different, but the approach will remain the same. The new Fair will last for six days - from Thursday October 10 to Tuesday October 15 1996 - and will offer visitors the chance to listen to and make music, to establish professional contacts, to debate the problems of the sector and to travel the whole wide world of music. The admission criteria? Curiosity and the desire to find out more.
You will find the pages of Book Fair at the following address: www.prosaloni.com/libro96.
Salone della Musica
Uffici: Via Susa 35, 10138 Torino (Italia)
Tel: +39-11-433.7054 / Fax: +39-11-433.1056
email: prosa@prosaloni.com
URL:http://www.prosaloni.com