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Last night was the perfect night to celebrate 60 years of the Frankfurt Book Fair, for it was the day the fair broke its all-time single day attendance record.
A total of 78,218 people walked through the fair’s portals (an 8.1% increase on the same day last year). Once the fair had closed, 3000 of them stayed behind last night for a special party to celebrate 60 years of the fair.
This was no ordinary party. After only a few minutes, a woman approached me and offered to show me her chest. I thought it was quite early in the party for such an offer, but actually she was a part of the official entertainment. The fair’s organisers has created a special commemorative video for the party and several people were wandering through the assembled throng showing the video on small video screens posited on their chests.
The party occupied several rooms in the fair’s capacious Congress Centre. In the main room, there was a sound stage and disco, with food arranged on huge tables organised by decade, from the 1950s to the Noughties. I’m not sure what this arrangement taught me about the evolution of German cuisine, as sausages seemed to play a major part in most of the dishes. By the time I got to dessert, all the tables had been cleared onto one table, and so I was able enjoy six decades of German pudding in one generous helping.
In another room, quieter and dimly lit, performance poets were entertaining a chilled-out crowd of literary types. I’m not a German speaker, so I can only guess at the topics covered by the poets, but I am surprised to have developed a new appreciation for the music of the German tongue.
It was a good time to reflect on how far the fair has come since the 1949, when it was a project created to aid Germany’s post-war reconstruction. It has continued to grow, adapt and innovate to the point where it is a major force for the development of a genuinely global industry. As the fair’s director Juergen Boos said to me the other day, ‘global’ need not be a negative thing - rather than creating a global uniformity, ‘it means everyone is talking with a different voice, but they’re talking to each other.’
Even though the party was Frankfurt’s way of thanking its exhibitors, it’s arguable that the exhibitors also owe the fair some thanks. With its prescient support for digital issues, professional development and the development of publishing in Arab countries and Africa, it is continuing to make it a lot easier for all of us to be genuinely global businesses.
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