It wasn’t a surprise to see — while walking through the gates of the 25th Biennal in São Paulo — the happiness in the face of thousands of people laughing and talking in the middle of hundreds of bookstores. Now, you’ll have the chance to experience a little bit of it too! Get to know everything that happened at this year’s Bienal do Livro.
The Biennal is the São Paulo’s International Book Fair and it happens every two years since 1961. The event took place at the Anhembi Exhibition Pavilion, located at the North Zone of the city, and it had a huge variety of not only books but activities. It was over 1.500 hours of things to do during the 11 days of fair. Another cool fact about the event was the attractions, since the first day people got the presence of personalities like Bela Gil and Monja Coen, who talked a little bit about religion on the 21 century during her chat at the Cultural Arena.
First weekend
Mauricio de Souza, who wrote “Turma da Mônica”, and Ziraldo, author of “Menino Maluquinho”, were also a highlight since they made a crossover between their characters in a book called “Mônica e o Menino Maluquinho na Montanha Mágica” written by Manuel Filho. The official release of the book happened on the first Saturday of the fair. They attended autograph sessions, interviews and chats with the audience where they discussed a little bit about children’s literature in Brazil.
The first Sunday of Biennal received an international author who wrote a book that inspired one of the newest Netflix movie, “The Kissing Booth”. Beth Reekles not only talked to her fans during her chat at the Cultural Arena but she also attended an autograph session. The store of Astral Cultural, publisher company of the book, was decorated with a booth where people could take pictures pretending they were the main characters of the story, Elle and Noah.
Talking about Netflix and successful movies, it’s worth highlighting that on the first weekend of fair the book “To all the boys I’ve loved before”, written by Jenny Han, completely sold out and it only got replaced on Friday. The movie premiered on 17th August on Netflix and according to sellers, was one of the most wanted during the biennal.
Books inspires not only movies but also TV Series. There was a huge variety of series references like the Iron Throne from Game Of Thrones, costumes of The Handmaid’s Tale (and people wearing them as well) and a lot of fan meetings.
Technology
Since the theme this year was “Download this knowledge!” it was expected that technology would be very present during the event, and it was. Microsoft brought a lot of futuristic stuff for education and entertainment. The project “2030’s Classroom” showed the importance of technology in the learning process and the development of study quality with new techniques.
The company had a very entertaining screen where kids, teens and adults could have their gender and age guessed through a “Real-time Audience Analysis”. The public could also see their emotions, if they looked sad, happy or just neutral. It was interesting to see people getting frustrated when they received a older or younger age and amazed when the screen showed them the right answer.
Last weeked
The last Saturday of biennal had the presence of Victoria Aveyard, the international author who wrote the “Red Queen” series. She gathered an extensive crowd to her chat, where fans asked if she was the kind of person who kills characters while crying or having tea. Well-tempered, she answered that she doesn’t drink tea but coffee! Victoria autographed books in two different meetings because of the amount of people who couldn’t get passwords for the first session.
David Levithan was another present author at biennal, and his book was an inspiration for a movie that premiered lately. He wrote “Every Day”, the story of a girl who falls in love for a person who wakes up in an different body every single day. Fans who attended the chat with the author said it was a truly lovely moment because they got the chance to meet not only their favorite writer, but also a lot of other fans who were really nice to each other.
On Sunday, the last attraction of Arena Cultural was also one of the firsts, Mauricio de Sousa joined fans and other authors in a chat about religious intolerance. It was an amazing closure to an event that is known for its mix of culture and wants to “celebrate the transformation that books have in people’s lives.”