We at KUBO know that balikbayans love to support Filipino-made goods, especially when they are visiting the Philippines. From clothes and accessories to beauty products and other pasalubong items, balikbayans will gladly shop them all when they’re back home. It’s time we extend the same love to books by Filipino authors and book publishers.
If you happen to be in the Philippines this April, you may want to check out the Philippine Book Festival (PBF), which will be held at the World Trade Center in Pasay City, Metro Manila, from April 25 to 28, 2024. For the second year running, the National Book Development Board Philippines (NBDB) will bring together publishers, authors, artists, educators, and readers at the country’s biggest traveling book festival.
If you’re not in town at that time, you may also ask friends or relatives in Metro Manila to shop books for you. If you’re traveling with children, not only will this event be highly entertaining for them, it’s also a good opportunity for them to learn more about the Philippines, Filipino culture, and stories written in the local language and the many dialects used in the country.
What to Expect at the Book Festival
The PBF is a four-day celebration showcasing the richness of Philippine literature, culture, and arts. This unique book fair integrates education, entertainment, tourism, and shopping into a single family-friendly event. In addition to the extensive collection of published works and titles from the Philippines, this year’s festival offers a diverse range of talks, workshops, and interactive areas.
Highlights will include “A Day with Gwy Saludes,” featuring an exclusive book signing and meet-and-greet session with the author. Historian and bestselling author Ambeth Ocampo, known for his compelling writings about Philippine historical figures like Rizal Without the Overcoat, will have a book signing session. National Artist for Film and Broadcast Arts Ricky Lee will present “Trip to Quiapo,” while “Dahling Nick: A Tribute to National Artist Nick Joaquin” will honor the renowned writer. Other sessions include “Comics Can Change the World” with Patti Ramos and “Zine-making 101,” a workshop on crafting independently-produced “fanzines” led by Komiket’s Bunny Luz.
Balikbayans attending the festival will also likely be interested in the comeback of the Rare Book Collection by the National Library of the Philippines, which will feature a new selection of rare manuscripts and facsimiles; and the Book Bar—a library of sorts filled with award-winning books. Other activities include Cosplay Filipiniana, a cosplay competition allowing fans to portray their beloved Philippine literary characters; and Guhit Pambata, an exhibit highlighting the creations of some of our best children’s book illustrators. This year, the PBF will also launch the Tabuan Food Hall, wherein guests can feast in between pages.
The festival brings back its four popular realms: Kid Lit, a land just for children; Komiks, which puts the spotlight on Pinoy komiks; Booktopia, home to an abundance of fiction and non-fiction titles; and Aral Aklat, which is devoted to textbooks and educational materials. There will be a Creators Lab, Main Stage, and Kids-at-Play that highlight exciting talks, activities, and workshops more specific to the interests of readers and fans of those genres.
Panels, puppet shows, book-based storytelling with surprise television and movie celebrities, more book signing events with authors of all ages and genres, poetry reading with authors like Jerico Silvers, and live performances are also scheduled throughout the four-day festival.
“This year, we have more authors and we bring together the best of Philippine content for the entire family. The country needs more reading spaces that encourage conversation, creation, and collaboration. The second Philippine Book Festival will be a much bigger event, with 160 exhibitors from all over Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao; with over 100 events, workshops, talks, exhibits, and performances,” said NBDB Executive Director Charisse Aquino-Tugade at the launch event. “We have tapped the best event managers that are already doing this, such as the ones behind the Manila International Book Fair. We prepared lots of activities for everyone—for lolo, lola, the kids, mga magka-date. There’s even food, and most importantly, it’s all for free! Access for all, I hope you can all dive in.”
The festival will be a feast for the eyes too as it features the designs of talented graphic designer and children’s book illustrators Mare Vincent Soriano, Liza Flores, and Beth Parrocha. Parrocha designed the four realms, finding inspiration in the four major elements: water for Kid Lit; earth for Komiks; fire for Aral Aklat; and air for Booktopia. Each realm has its color as well—pink, purple, yellow, and aqua—to make it easy for guests to figure out which part of the festival they’re in.
A Stronger Culture of Reading
The Philippine Book Festival is part of the National Book Development Board’s effort to promote a culture of reading and develop the publishing industry in the Philippines.
“The Philippine Book Fair is a program that, on the one hand, is about celebrating Philippine culture, but on the other hand, encompasses our agency’s long-term plans to improve access for every Filipino reader, democratize distribution, and enable our publishers and authors to keep producing Philippine books,” said NBDB Chairperson Dante Francis Ang II.
If you won’t be able to attend the PBF and you happen to be in the US, you can look forward to NBDB’s The Book Nook coming to the Bay Area this year. “We will have a Book Nook launch in the most concentrated area of Filipinos in the US, which is Daly City in San Francisco,” said Tugade at the launch. “We will have a Book Nook there and also in South Korea.”
In an effort to work toward a local book publishing industry and education sector where kids could read their own stories in their language and contexts, the NBDB launched two flagship programs: besides the Philippine Book Festival, an interactive traveling book fair featuring the best of Philippine literature and art in a single space, they also launched the Book Nook, which is a network of community and reading centers in indigenous communities all over the country. The Book Nook program was created in the pandemic, providing pre-readers, children, and young adults a space where they can read non-school books just for their pure entertainment.
Why is this so important? “If we don’t provide a platform for our children to learn about themselves and the world they live in, they will grow up in environments shaped solely by other voices. To become great global citizens, we must start with our own stories,” says Tugade. “We encourage LGUs, kung gusto n’yo pong magtayo ng Book Nook, we will train, we will give books. All you need to do is get your manager and your programmer, and someone who will take care of the Book Nook and the books, and we can help you out.”
The fair is open to the public from 8AM to 8PM on April 25-28, with no entrance fees. For more information on the Philippine Book Festival and to register for free, visit www.philippinebookfest.com. Check out the complete list of activities below.
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