Juergen Boos

The Frankfurt Book Fair has formally cancelled its physical event. The international book summit, which had originally planned to celebrate Canada as its guest of honour in 2020, will take place online only through the fair’s Buchemesse.de website. The organization’s investment in the website represents “a few million euros,” according to fair director Juergen Boos.

The fair will still be held October 12–18, its original dates, and all participants will be invited to advertise events in the fair’s calendar. The online festival will include a forum for international rights sales. Both the virtual exhibitor and events catalogues will go live mid-September.

Though full programming details have yet to be announced, there will be daily virtual conferences held between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. The conferences will cover academic and scholarly publishing (Oct. 12), rights and licensing (Oct. 13), publishing insights (Oct. 14), and audio (Oct. 15).