Bologna by the numbers
This year’s Bologna fair is running at scale — organizers list more than 1,500 exhibitors and roughly 500 events across publishing, illustration, and licensing. (lanouvellevague.it)
Bologna Children’s Book Fair opened its 63rd edition in Bologna on April 13 with a four-day program built around rights trading, illustration and licensing. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) The 2026 fair runs through April 16 at the Bologna Exhibition Centre, and organizers describe it as a three-in-one event with BolognaBookPlus for general trade publishing and Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids for brands and rights. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Organizers say the 2026 edition includes more than 1,500 exhibitors and about 500 events, extending a fair that has been running for 63 editions. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Those numbers are close to the 2025 totals, when Bologna reported 1,577 exhibitors from about 95 countries and regions and 33,318 trade visitors across more than 500 events. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com) The fair’s business model now reaches beyond children’s books. BolognaBookPlus returns for its sixth edition in 2026 with programs for rights, translation, audio, design and an April 14 Artificial Intelligence Summit. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Licensing is expanding too. Bologna Licensing Trade Fair/Kids returns for its 19th edition on April 13-16, and the fair says its pavilion also houses the Television and Film Rights Centre and the Games Business Centre. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; bolognachildrensbookfair.com) That shift has been building for two years. Bologna launched the Television and Film Rights Centre in 2024, added the Games Centre in 2025 with Frankfurter Buchmesse, and says the audiovisual matchmaking offer is broader again in 2026. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; bolognachildrensbookfair.com) The fair is also using the guest-country slot to anchor part of the program. Norway is the 2026 Guest of Honour, with exhibitions and workshops scheduled both inside the fairgrounds and around Bologna. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; bolognachildrensbookfair.com) Bologna’s recent attendance suggests the scale is not just symbolic. In 2024 the fair reported 31,735 trade visitors, and in 2025 it said attendance rose 5 percent year over year. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; bolognachildrensbookfair.com) For four days each spring, Bologna is still a children’s book fair. By 2026, it is also a marketplace for stories moving into games, film, television, audio and licensing deals. (bolognachildrensbookfair.com; bolognachildrensbookfair.com)
