(essay)

The Festival Knyzhkova Kraiina lasted for 4 days at VDNH. In fact, I was convinced that I would get there, but I planned to volunteer at the event. However, it didn’t work out. So I came to the festival as an ordinary visitor.

The first thing I saw were huge posters depicting new books and huge posters announcing events that took place every day. But the most impressive was the huge installation “Knyzhkova Kraiina” made of soft material. Of course, it was fun for children to climb on it. But the evil guards did their best to prevent the kids from doing so. And to put it mildly, they did not help.

Later, I decided to attend a lecture in one of the festival’s sections. This event was scheduled specifically for the day I was at Knyzhkova Kraiina. The lecture was entitled “Can Ukraine become the most read country?” The panelists included media professionals, such as Dmytro Karpachov. Representatives of publishing houses and bookstores were also present. The discussion was held in a small room, and it felt like you were right next to them. But I didn’t really like the organization of the event. It was obvious that most of the participants were not prepared and were not tactful. This led to mixed impressions of the event.

After attending the lecture, it was time to visit the stands of all the publishers. Knyzhkova Kraiina was attended by 140 participants, including 90 publishing houses, 16 independent authors, as well as bookstores, educational spaces, and public organizations. And the number of events held is impressive – as many as 324 events: discussions, presentations, master classes, quests, family readings, and autograph sessions. This was reported by the organizers of the Book Country. I think this is a worthy result.

So what did the locations of the publishing houses look like? They were placed in huge rows both outside and indoors in the main building. I visited almost all the publishers and, of course, wanted to buy a lot from each of them. But I came to the event with a special task: to buy Ukrainian classics from the publishing house “Shche odnu storinku”. I had a hard time finding their location, because there were a lot of people near each place stall. But I did find it. I should note that the owners and representatives of the publishing house are very kind and nice people, and they told me that the publishing house will soon announce a lot of interesting Ukrainian literature. So stay tuned for their updates. And of course, I couldn’t leave them without buying a book. I bought the novel Hochu by Volodymyr Vynnychenko.

It would seem that Knyzhkova Kraiina is so huge, but I managed to meet a lot of colleagues, friends, and even university professors there. It was unexpected, but at the same time so nice that so many people, including my friends, attended such a wonderful book event.

So in conclusion, I would just like to say that Knyzhkova Kraiina is not only an event with a thousand books, but a truly unique event! Visitors were able to find so many interesting things thanks to the advice of media people who attended the event, such as Jamala, Monatik, Oleksandr Teren, Olena Kravets, and many others. As well as literary critics, artists, authors, and other opinion leaders. I recommend you to follow the updates and announcements of the festival. And if you don’t have time to do so, I will do it for you. The next Knyzhkova Kraiina Festival will take place on September 26-29 this year. Don’t miss it! And be sure to share your impressions with me afterward. I can’t wait!)