Following the success of the Baltic Book Fair in the spring of 1997 at the hotel Radisson SAS “Daugava”, the publishing sector decided to hold regular events for promoting book publishing. The first Riga Book Festival was held in 1998 at the Daile Theatre. LPA organized it in cooperation with the Latvian Booksellers’ Association and the exhibition company Creatio. In the following year, the Festival was organized at the Riga House of Congresses, afterward returning again to the Daile Theatre. In 2004, publishers exhibited their new editions at the Skonto Hall, together with an exhibition of the printing and publishing industry. Since 2006, the Riga Book Festival has been repeatedly held at the Riga House of Congresses, but n 2019 a new venue was tested – the National Library of Latvia, where publishers plan to convene again in the autumn of 2022.
Until the Covid-19 pandemic, the Riga Book Festival had 20 editions.
We offer insight into the events of the last three Riga Book Festivals.