The Madrid Book Fair has announced it will reopen its doors this Sunday between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM. This temporary reopening precedes the definitive suspension of its activities, prompted by the forecast of an orange weather alert that will take effect at 6:00 PM.
According to the organization, the yellow alert will remain in place until 6:00 PM, after which a red level will be activated until 9:00 PM, returning to yellow between 9:00 PM and midnight. Due to this situation, the Fair will close to the public at 6:00 PM, suspending sales, author signings, and all scheduled activities.
Despite the closure to the public, the organization has specified that dismantling and collection work within the venue can continue, as the closure of El Retiro Park is not anticipated.
The 85th edition of the Madrid Book Fair reports a provisional turnover of 7.26 million euros and 430,845 books sold as of Thursday, June 11. This figure is 420,000 euros less than in the same period of 2025. The organization estimates approximately 600,000 visitors, measured by mobile phone traffic.
Final results will be released on Wednesday, June 17. The Fair's director, Eva Orúe, attributed the provisional balance to the "difficulties" of an edition marked by mobility issues in the city, particularly during the central weekend. "Nothing that happens in the city is alien to us," she stated.
Orúe noted that many visitors avoided the city center due to travel complications. The organization hopes that the data from the final weekend will help partially offset the decline. Initial impressions from exhibitors suggest a consolidation of weekdays for book purchases, with a more focused audience, while weekends continue to attract larger crowds, especially for author signings.
The Fair's management has announced that the 2027 edition will be dedicated to memories, exploring their construction, transmission, and preservation. This theme coincides with significant anniversaries for the book and Spanish culture sector, including the 60th anniversary of the Fair in El Retiro, the 50th of the Madrid Booksellers' Association and the Madrid Publishers' Association, and the centenary of the Generation of '27 and the birth of Gabriel García Márquez.
The theme will address personal, familial, literary, territorial, and collective memories, as well as those residing within books themselves. Bookstores will play a prominent role as spaces for meeting and cultural transmission, and the program will focus on memory as celebration, its relationship with territory, fiction, and its use as a tool for imagining the future.
