Little fear of Corona, much desire to read

The number of visitors is limited.

Sebastian Gollnow / dpa

Frankfurt/Main

“Books, books everywhere,” cheer two young girls. Arm in arm, they storm the Frankfurt exhibition grounds on Friday afternoon.

The book fair was actually not supposed to open to the reading public until 2 p.m., but because not all visitors had noticed and had been waiting since noon, the inspectors let in the first around a quarter of an hour earlier.

A noticeably large number of young people came on the first of the three visitor days, some of them are at the book fair for the first time. Some are disguised in colorful costumes – they have moved the cosplay tradition of the fair Saturday one day forward.

The number of visitors is limited

Unlike in previous years, trade fair tickets have to be purchased online in advance. Because of the corona measures, personal registration with details of contact details is also necessary. In addition, the number of visitors is limited – to 25,000 per day.

The press spokeswoman for the book fair, Kathrin Grün, was expecting full capacity at the weekend. In fact, the contingent for Saturday was already fully booked on Friday.

At the beginning of the visitor weekend, the rush is not particularly big: at the City entrance only half of the entry checkpoints are occupied and that is more than enough. The other control stations will not open until the weekend, says a trade fair employee.

The admission process is fixed. As at the airport, the guests wait in rows until they can show their documents. Because only those who show the electronic ticket, the vaccination, test or convalescence certificate as well as the identity card can get in. Stopping by spontaneously is not this year. The queuing in the bare vestibule of the exhibition halls does not dampen the anticipation: “The admission here worked much better than at many other trade fairs,” reports one visitor. There is little distance between the excited literary friends, but they bravely adhere to the mask requirement.

Lots of space for reading fans

The entire book fair will take place on a smaller scale this year. In return, the book fair visitors can buy the newly discovered books on Friday. There are only sales stands in three halls, which are generally more airy than usual. This is due, for example, to the fact that fewer exhibitors came from abroad because of the corona pandemic, says the book fair spokeswoman. As a result, the corridors in the halls could be widened in accordance with the corona. Where the masses moved before the pandemic, there is now plenty of space for reading fans.

The major German publishers are, however, almost fully represented at this year’s book fair. In total, 2000 publishers and companies from 80 countries have registered this year. However, this year visitors will have to do without the large reading tent and the pavilion, which were usually located in the courtyard of the exhibition grounds. There are also no visitor magnets such as the colorful calendar gallery.