Book Biennial is packed on Saturday, but it is more comfortable in a larger space

The Rio de Janeiro Book Biennial filled up very quickly on the first Saturday of its program —at around 1 pm, the organization announced that it would stop selling tickets for the day—, but it seemed less crowded than in previous years.

What seems like a contradiction is understandable given the increase in space promoted by the event organizers, who expanded the area occupied at Riocentro from 90,000 to 130,000 square meters. GL Events, responsible for the complex, does not disclose the number of visitors per day and states that it will only release figures in the final report on the 22nd.

The event's activities will still take place in four pavilions, as in 2023, but the extra space was used to house infrastructure that was previously crowded together with the publishers' stands.

In a welcome decision, the restaurants and food carts left the sheds and began to occupy only the outdoor areas, spread out in various spots — visitors had lunch on benches and lawns, on pleasant afternoons outdoors, and the books were spared from the smell of grease that had tainted them in other editions.

Even the attractions that were big new features at this Biennial, such as the Ferris wheel and the Story Labyrinth, had good flow.

For the first, you paid 20 reais for a full ticket and waited about 15 minutes in line to go around three booths inspired by literary works. In the second, four mazes themed after suspense and fantasy series were popular with many people, but the line lasted less than half an hour, even with free admission.

The good organization was not enough to solve, however, a Gordian knot in the entire Biennial — the extremely tight corridors of people between the stands of the main publishers, with several lines rubbing shoulders at a snail's pace.

"Also, who put Rocco next to Harlequin?" complained a teenager about the idea of ​​leaving the home of the eternal phenomenon " Harry Potter " next to the young imprint of HarperCollins.

This is because, once again, the Book Biennial is truly for the young . Anyone who doubts this can see images of the panel with Elayne Baeta — pronounced Eláine —, an author from Bahia who was catapulted to sudden fame in recent years and filled the main stage with teenagers obsessed with her sapphic novels, that is, those that portray love between women.

Elayne cried as she stepped onto the stage, amidst the fiery screams of hundreds of girls, and began the session filled with emotion. "You really came," she said, remembering that not long ago she was a girl who wrote stories on the Wattpad app in a city in the interior of Bahia.

"We are very different, but it is in our differences that we find ourselves," she said during the meeting. "And seeing characters who are like me in literature is something that heals."

The writer sold more than 100,000 copies of her novels, driven by another protagonist of this Biennial — TikTok , an app whose influencers and algorithms have become the biggest book sellers on the market.

This time, the social network is the official sponsor of the country's biggest literary event, occupying four stands in one of the central pavilions and opening the way for independent writers who have made a name for themselves there.

Right at the entrance to Riocentro, a TikTok booth invites visitors to take photos at a table with microphones—as the attendant explains, it's "as if you were being interviewed on a podcast." In another corner, inside the pavilions, two employees were on hand in another setting with the social network's logo to help visitors strike glamorous poses to record and immediately post their own videos on TikTok.

For older generations, it’s like those instant photo booths where you go in, pose, and come out with printed Polaroids in your hand. But times—and readers—have changed.

• 10:30 am, at Praça Além da Página Shell The convenience store and the literary office

  Kim Ho-yeon, Cristiana Seixas, Suu Gagliano, Livrosdaro, Pakkun

• 1pm, on the Apoteose Shell Stage Inspiring reflections

  Junior Rostirola, Silvana Ramiro

• 5pm, on the Apoteose Shell Stage Pages on stage - the flower of the skin - meetings & readings around the work of Lázaro Ramos

  Lázaro Ramos, Edvana Carvalho, Gabz, Bussaka Kabengele, Pretinhas Leitoras, Bianca Ramoneda

• 6pm, on the Pólen Literary Café Stage Pages on the screen - the announcement of death as the reinvention of life

  Ana Claudia Quintana Arantes, Clelia Bessa, Heloisa Perissé, Lilian Ribeiro