The ambassador of Finland to Romania, Leena Liukkonen, will attend the official opening of the 4th edition of the SepsiBook2025 - Book Fair and Contemporary Literature Festival, which will take place between May 22 and 25 at the Sepsi Arena in Sfantu Gheorghe.

The festival will start on Thursday morning with activities dedicated to teenagers and children, and the opening ceremony will take place at 5:00 pm, in the presence of local authorities and several guests, including the ambassador of Finland to Bucharest, Leena Liukkonen, and writer Mircea Cartarescu.

The SepsiBook Book Fair and Contemporary Literature Festival, organized by the 'Bod Peter' County Library in Sfantu Gheorghe and the 'Konya Adam' Municipal Culture House, with the support of local authorities, the National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN) and other partners, will bring together almost 40 publishing houses from Romania and Hungary and will include more than 100 events - meetings with authors, book launches, workshops, exhibitions, performances, concerts and even sports activities.

Among the special guests of the edition are Ioan T. Morar, Ioana Nicolaie, Dan Lungu, as well as Finnish writers Timo Parvela and Sofi Oksanen.

The head of the County Library, Szonda Szabolcs, told AGERPRES that one of the strengths of this year's edition is its international openness, embodied in the presence of Finnish writers, interactive workshops on contemporary Finnish literature, playful introductory sessions in Finnish, and meetings with students from the Department of Finnish at Babes-Bolyai University.

'We wanted to bring to the attention of the public an incursion into Finnish literature and, of course, we continue to place a constant emphasis on the dialogue between Hungarian and Romanian literatures, both through the translations presented and through direct meetings between the authors of the two cultural spaces. (...) Likewise, we place emphasis on literature for children and young people and on our address to families, to these interconnected generations. (...) We built this festival as a space where people can spend an entire day - with literature, related arts, dialogues and relaxation, opportunities to eat and drink, so everything related to a pleasant atmosphere. It is a festival that has grown not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively, strengthening its position in the cultural landscape of Romania and we hope that the public will respond in large numbers this year as well, as it did in previous editions,' said Szonda Szabolcs.

In 2023, the SepsiBook Book Fair was visited by approximately 7,500 people, and last year it attracted more than 10,800 participants.

Public access to the events will be free of charge for this year's edition, and local authorities will supplement public transportation to the Sepsi Arena, including special services and the tourist train. The full programme of the festival is available on the official SepsiBook website and on the event's Facebook page. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Oana Malina Negrea, EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)