I. Metshin: “The summer book festival is another opportunity to touch high-quality literature”

(KZN.RU, June 8, Alsu Safina). “We dreamed of filling our parks and gardens with life. The summer book festival is a good step towards this”, Ilsur Metshin, the Mayor of Kazan, commented on the festival today, which starts on June 10-11 in the park “Chernoe Ozero”. Communication with journalists was held directly in the park on the site, where shelves and shop windows with books will be in the coming weekend.

The head of the city thanked the organizers of the event, in particular, the Center of Contemporary Culture “Smena”. “I remember well how we made the first shy steps together. How we thought, how much it will get accustomed and will be in demand in the age of computers and the Internet. The current festival will be the seventh one”, he said.

I. Metshin drew attention to the fact that the geography of the festival participants is expanding: Russian and foreign speakers come, the number of publishers participating in the book fair is growing. “This is another opportunity for Kazan book lovers to touch high-quality literature”, said the Mayor. According to him, great importance is given to educating both adults and children readers. “We want Kazan to be cultural and reading so that such festivals become a standard practice in parks, squares, and all public spaces”, added the Mayor.

On the question of which books he prefers, Ilsur Metshin answered: “The rustle of pages is still dear to my heart. I read electronic books only on the road”. He also said that he liked history books, good stories about life and love more than others.

The head of the city plans to visit the book fair in order to purchase several editions. “Of course, we will also look at children's literature. My son reads in three languages: Tatar, Russian, and English”, told the Mayor reporters.

Kirill Mayevsky, an art director of the Center of Contemporary Culture “Smena”, said that it was a long-standing idea to hold a festival in the park and thanked the head of the city for the given opportunity to realize it. Natalia Fishman, an assistant to the President of the RT, noted that the festival will be held in that part of the park, which was reconstructed at the first stage of the work. “This year we are sure to finish the second stage”, she added.

“We will pay a lot of attention to make sure that park managers appeared, the right environment was formed, and that there was a place in the city where anyone can go and have a good time every weekend”, she expressed hope.

Talking about the upcoming festival, Kirill Mayevsky said that the new venue, which will host the event, allowed expanding the family program of the festival. Three locations will be organized for those who come with children. In particular, there will be a children's lecture hall, “Street Laboratory”, and a family attraction “The Story Generator”.

The core of the festival will be a book fair, in which more than 80 independent publishing houses, shops, and bookselling companies will take part. They will present literature that does not appear on the shelves of large bookstores. It will be possible to find children's, scientific, and fiction literature among books.

According to Kirill Mayevsky, the organizers paid much attention to the educational program for adults. “This year we have a big international program with guests from the USA, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, and Sweden. You will hear speeches by leading Russian speakers”, said art director of the “Smena”.

Within the framework of the parallel program, the concert and recital of the composer Leonid Desyatnikov will be held at the Kazan City Hall on the first day of the festival.

Damir Fattakhov, the first deputy head of the Executive Committee, and Inna Yarkova, the director of the Support of Contemporary Art Fund “Zhivoy Gorod”, also took part in the press conference.

The Kazan City Hall regularly supports various initiatives, related to the popularization of reading. Such events as “Book-fest” and “Aksenov-fest” are held annually in the city in addition to the summer and winter book festivals. Thus, the IV city festival “Book-fest-2017” was held on June 6 in the Lyadskoy Garden, which was visited by about 2 thousand Kazan citizens and tourists.