BolognaFiere

What a lovely place, this place is huge. It has many many halls, each hall larger than the other. It was an Amazing Zoomark. This was planned by the organisers in an amazing way, they had organised shuttle service from Bologna Central to the fair. directions to each Hall was marked clearly, everywhere, so that you would not confuse yourself and need to walk extra. It has large number of parking spaces, food stalls, all across open areas, lots of areas for toilets, with wheelchair accessible-ones too. It was pet friendly with lots of pets around. At the entrance, there were people who knew multiple languages who could help everybody with directions. There were Maps of the entire place they were directories of the participants. This place is very organised with a bus stop right outside and taxi stands.

!!! ENTRANCE: The pin on the Maps is on the *other side* of the BolognaFiere site and you will usually not find public access here. There are zero signs towards the entrance and asking locals didn't help either (huh?), despite the fact I joined an Italian gentleman from Rome who could ask for directions in Italian. Literally dozens of people were lost here, which is embarrassing. After 20 minutes, we found out there is an entrance on the opposite side of this entire area - search for "fiera bologna piazza constituzione entrance" A set of large halls for exhibitions, various business-related festivals and other bigger expos, not very far away from Bologna's centre or the main train station (~15-20 minutes of walking). The entire look and feel of the space is more factory-like, which fits the industrial atmosphere well (Bologna is the Motor Valley). The amount of halls opened will depend on the event - I attended 3-day long technological WMF (We Make Future), and about half was accessible, which you could walk through in roughly 30 minutes of normal pace. Second floors were closed off. Additionally, there was also a food/music courtyard in between the halls. Generally, a decent space with enough amenities and slightly confusing navigation due to it's uneven and illogical layout. The poor signage didn't help it.

Amazing space for fairs, although it lacks of sufficient bathrooms (specially for women) and tables to sit for lunch.

Largest Children's Book Fair is held here. Hundreds of exhibitors and thousands of visitors throughout the world flock together at the Fair grounds . 2023 being the 60th year of Bologna Book Fair , there was a large crowd. Not far from the City Center and the train station, Bologna Centrale

When you visit Bologna, you will feel that there is nothing there but seriousness and delicious lasagna, but when you visit the exhibition halls, another face of this town will appear. The exhibition hall is very distinctive, designed in an industrial architectural style and in a distinctive construction way.

Attending zoomark for many years. This year it’s much worse. Dirty toilets with no soap, rude catering staff, long queues and chaos in food venues. It’s not a great place to have a show in.

I was here during the event of children’s bookfair, its the biggest in the world and has a great potential for international publishers. For this specific event, i would recommend to have 2 days maximum, which is almost enough to visit most of the interesting booths, unless you are alone, so you will need more than 2 days.

As usual, amazing experience. You can see all Italian vendors in this show