More
than 90,000 people visited the New
Zealand
Fair
director Juergen Boos said it was the first time in the fair’s history a Guest
of Honour had managed to have presence in every hall of the fair, including the
comics zone, educational publishers, gourmet gallery, outdoor space and
transmedia conference Storydrive.
Weekend
attendances at the New
Zealand
Saturday
also saw the popular Cosplay costume competition take place which was this year
invaded by JRR Tolkien characters.
The
Hobbit themed competition attracted hundreds of fans dressed as orcs, elves,
Gollums and hobbits all vying for a prize of a trip to New Zealand Wellington
Other
highlights over the weekend included a live broadcast by Radio New Zealand’s
Kim Hill Saturday morning programme, and a closely-fought rugby match between
the German National Team and the New Zealand
Meanwhile,
Kevin Chapman, president of the Publishers Association of New Zealand, said the
fair has been a huge success for New Zealand
“Not
only are we seeing more publishers than ever before, and they are buying our
books, but we have an incredibly enhanced reputation as a publishing country.
“Quite
simply we are seen as having an enhanced status as a nation of writers and
publishers. All the targets we have set have been surpassed,” he said.
Mr
Chapman said publishers now had new relationships with other publishers around
the world who were looking to buy our books.
“Most
publishers are saying they have had more interest and that interest and that interest is more firm than they have
ever experienced before. We have also been approached by the Taipei Book Fair
to be guest of honour there.”
The
fair is due to conclude tomorrow morning New
Zealand time, with a handover ceremony when New Zealand passes the Guest of Honour status to
Brazil
2 comments:
Great news to hear that Frankfurt has been such a success.
Great news! So a big bouquet then to all the organisers - who have copped a bit of flak back here at home over the past few months, as various people in the books industry focused, somewhat negatively, on what wasn't being included, rather than what was.
(confession - I found myself doing the same thing sometimes). Well done to Kevin Chapman, and everyone else. You should be really proud of your efforts. Hopefully we can kick on from here and expose more and more of our terrific authors to a wider global audience.
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