Book Fairs/Literary Festivals

Europe’s vast range of literary events includes some of the oldest and most venerated in the world. Use the search menu below to find events across the continent.

Selected festivals

The international house of literature Passa Porta is a unique, multilingual meeting place. Every two years Passa Porta draws about 100 national and international writers, thinkers and artists to Brussels. The Passa Porta Festival is the only multilingual literary event on this scale in Europe. Scattered throughout the city, authors and readers gather to share their experiences.

L’intime festival focuses not only on literature but also its intersection with photography, music, visual arts and film. Each field is introduced by experts including comedians, illustrators, musicians and writers. This multi-disciplinary festival, initiated by the artist Benoît Poelvoorde, takes place in several locations in the city of Namur.

The BD (Bande Dessinée) Comic Strip Festival, formerly Fête de la BD, is a comic strip festival held in September in Brussels since 2010. The program of the BD Comic Strip Festival focuses on comics and includes exhibitions, meetings, signing sessions, guided tours, conferences, games and the awarding of the Atomium Prize.

Aware of its social responsibility as a non-profit organization promoting reading, the Brussels Book Fair in April is committed to breaking down the barriers around books. The Fairs program is aimed at an audience whose access to literature is not always guaranteed. The location Tour & Taxis (a large industrial site in Brussels) is the meeting place for all those involved in the book industry: authors, illustrators, publishers, distributors, booksellers, critics, librarians and readers.

The Poetik Bazar is a project led by a collective of non-profit organizations which aims to promote contemporary poetry through poets, artists and publishing houses to an intergenerational audience. A rich program consisting of workshops, meetings, readings, books signings and other events enables the audience to rediscover the vitality of the contemporary poetry scene. The fair takes place at Les Halles de Schaerbeek in Brussels.