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The Philippines will be the Guest of Honor at the 2025 Frankfurter Buchmesse (FBM), a significant announcement from the NBDB’s Philippine Book Festival at SMX Convention Center, Lanang, Davao City, held from August 18 to 20.
The historic agreement was inked on August 18 at the NBDB’s Philippine Book Festival (PBF)-Davao with the following as signatories: from NBDB, Chairman Dante Francis Ang II and Executive Director Charisse Aquino-Tugade; and from FBM, President/CEO Juergen Boos, Vice-President for Business Development Claudia Kaiser, and Guest of Honor Program Head Simone Bühler.
The FBM or Frankfurt Book Fair is, at 75, the world’s oldest and biggest annual venue for printed and digital content. Producers come from all over the world to see the latest books that can be adapted into films, games, and other types of content.
FBM is where a Filipino author can have the chance to have their book picked up for translation into other languages and publication in other countries, or adapted for a film, or made into a video game. This type of synergy is advantageous to content creators who may see their works have a second, even a third life, beyond their first birth as locally-published books.
Being the Guest of Honor affords the chosen country even more opportunities for exposure as their books will be given prominent display at the Fair. The Philippines is only the second Southeast Asian country to be invited to be a GOH at the FBM, after Indonesia 10 years ago.
PBF highlights: Day 1
The PBF is the country’s largest traveling bookfair, organized and conducted by the NBDB.
This is the festival’s second leg after the highly successful Manila edition held last June at the World Trade Center, the first such held, which saw over 40,000 guests arrive to experience the event’s various “activation areas:” Booktopia, Kid Lit, and Komiks.
The NBDB, the government agency tasked with promoting the creation and publication of books by Filipinos, knocked it out of the park again in Davao with an event that was both enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Not only was the atmosphere fun and welcoming, but the event was graced with cultural performances by Mindanaoan dancers, chanters, and musicians, and exhibits by master weavers, but its activities were intellectually engaging and broadening. It was a party and literary and arts salon at the same time.
Day 1 began early with the Lalang-Banwa opening ceremony graced by Vice President and Department of Education Secretary Sara Z. Duterte, who welcomed book fest guests to the city’s 38th Kadayawan festival saying, “May this festival illuminate our path toward a strong Philippines where the pages of our shared story are etched with the enduring ink of knowledge, wisdom, and inspiration.”
Adarna House publisher Ani Rosa Almario read Senator Loren Legarda’s message on her behalf. The senator, who was instrumental in pushing for the country to obtain GOH status at FBM, said about books:
“As vessels of knowledge, books can inspire, educate, promote critical thinking, and awaken the dormant creativity within people. They hold within their pages a world of information and insights waiting to be discovered, explored, and embraced that we might raise the quality of our people’s lives.”
Various events followed, taking place on the main stage and the activation areas, among them a Lunch Talk with Chef Claude Tayag, author of The Ultimate Filipino Adobo, who discussed the various ways adobo is prepared all over the country, and its significance to Filipinos as an iconic dish.
— Jenny Ortuoste
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