As is the case every year, the energy, creativity, ideas and content that converge at Bologna Children’s Book Fair are sure to overflow from the exhibition halls, surging into cultural venues, libraries, schools and buildings in the city of Bologna in a genuine festival spread across the city: a rich and diverse range of exhibitions, meetings and initiatives for the general public of adults and children.
BOOM! - Crescere nei libri (BOOM! - Growing up in books) is the title of the programme of initiatives in the city, promoted by the Municipal council of Bologna and BolognaFiere, organised by the Libraries and Cultural Welfare Department together with Hamelin Cultural Association as part of the Bologna Reading Pact, and sponsored by IBBY - International Board on Books for Young People Italy. More than 40 exhibitions, 150 events among workshops and meetings, and 100+ artists are expected to take part. Scheduled events include a site-specific exhibition by the great illustrator Paul Cox, in collaboration with BCBF: the fruit of a week-long residency the artist spent at Palazzo Paltroni, exhibition space and headquarters of the Fondazione del Monte. The exhibition will feature a huge continuous painting, 75 metres long, that will cover the entire space.
At the Testoni Ragazzi Theatre, Little Design. Katsumi Komagata is an exhibition of eight illustrations created by the great illustrator Katsumi Komagata on the theme of early childhood responses in the context of the performing arts. Little Design. Curated by La Baracca – Testoni Ragazzi, Bologna Children’s Book Fair and ONE STROKE, is a tribute to a master of contemporary illustration and an invitation to continue investigating the aesthetic experience in early childhood, emphasising the importance of international artistic cooperation as a tool of cultural policy.
Finally, the second edition of OFF FAIR, organised by Accademia Drosselmeier, is a programme that, beginning in Bologna and taking place throughout the year, brings the wealth of books that inhabit the fair to various cities in Italy and all over the world, transforming them into a collective heritage. The project involves national and international libraries, museums and schools, which, thanks to donations of books from the fair’s archive can expand the scope of their own collections: Florence will host silent books; Sesto Fiorentino will experience the most beautiful books from China; in Scandicci the focus will be on women; comics in Bergamo and at the Comics Museum in Pordenone; in Subiaco, Capital of Books 2025, books that talk about books; in Milan, at the Museum of Science and Technology, popular science books; in Vilnius and Taiwan, a rich selection of the most popular illustrated books at BCBF.
Get ready for three days dedicated to gaming, in conjunction with the Games Business Center at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, to promote the Italian video game industry within an international context. This initiative is part of Bologna Game Farm, a project promoted by the Municipality of Bologna and co-financed by the Emilia-Romagna Region, aimed at supporting the growth of the video game sector in Italy.
The Esprit Nouveau Pavilion will become the hub for 14 video game development teams from Emilia-Romagna, offering the public the chance to play a selection of titles conceived and developed thanks to the acceleration program run by the Municipality of Bologna at the Serre dei Giardini Margherita incubator over the past four years.
During the fair, gaming will also take center stage through showcases, public meetings, and international networking opportunities. Among the key events, there will be a meeting with a delegation of publishers, organized in collaboration with the Italian Publishers Association (AIE), and an exchange of experiences with ten development teams from the German accelerator SpielFabrique, scheduled every afternoon during the event from 3:00 PM to 7:30 PM.
Join us from March 31 to April 2 at the dedicated area inside the Esprit Nouveau Pavilion (as part of the Bologna Game Farm Playground), where you can try the game for free. Access is open to everyone, even without a Bologna Children’s Book Fair pass.
Additionally, on April 2 at 5:30 PM, don’t miss the presentation of No Signal – Marconi the Game, a time-traveling journey through the groundbreaking discoveries of Guglielmo Marconi. The game is produced by the Municipality of Bologna with the support of the Emilia-Romagna Region and developed by Melazeta, in collaboration with the Guglielmo Marconi Foundation, University of Bologna, and the Museum of Industrial Heritage (Bologna’s Civic Museums Department).
Start playing now! The game is available for free download at www.marconinosignal.it.
Event Program:
OFF FAIR returns for its second edition, a program curated by Accademia Drosselmeier that, starting from Bologna and continuing throughout the year, brings the richness of the books featured at the fair to various cities in Italy and around the world, making them a collective heritage.
The project involves libraries, museums, and schools—both national and international—that, thanks to book donations from the Bologna fair’s archive, can expand their range of content.
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