The Porto Alegre Book Fair is held annually since 1955, between late October to mid-November, in the downtown Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is the largest outdoors book fair"Feiras do Livro em Porto Alegre." Terragaúcha. 6 August 2006 in Latin America and the most important cultural event in the city. Nowadays, the Fair sprawls itself between the Alfândega Square, the Sepúlveda Avenue and some docks at Porto Alegre Harbor.
History The Porto Alegre Book Fair was an idea from Say Marques, then manager of the Diário de Notícias newspaper. Marques wanted to make books available to the majority of the citizens, as bookshops were deemed to be snobbish. The first edition of the Book Fair had 14 book stands and it was inaugurated on November 16, 1955.
Patrons There is a patron for the Fair since 1965. Selection"Patrono." Feira do Livro - Porto Alegre. 6 August 2006 of the Patron has two phases. In the first phase, each bookshop associated to the Rio-Grandense Book Chamber submits five names. In the second phase, the 10 most voted persons list is submitted to 88 persons arising from the cultural scene. The most voted shall be the Patron of the Porto Alegre Book Fair; in case of tie ballot, the eldest one shall be chosen.
1965 - Alcides Maya 1966 - João Simões Lopes Neto 1967 - Alceu Wamosy 1968 - Caldas Júnior 1969 - Eduardo Guimaraens 1970 - Augusto Meyer 1971 - Manoelito de Ornellas 1972 - Luís Vaz de Camões 1973 - Darcy Azambuja 1974 - Leopoldo Bernardo Boeck 1975 - Athos Damasceno Ferreira 1976 - Erico Verissimo 1977 - Henrique Bertaso 1978 - Walter Spalding 1979 - Augustin Saint-Hilaire 1980 - Moysés Vellinho 1981 - Adão Juvenal de Souza 1982 - Reynaldo Moura e Monteiro Lobato 1983 - José Bertaso 1984 - Maurício Rosenblatt 1985 - Mario Quintana 1986 - Cyro Martins 1987 - Moacyr Scliar 1988 - Alberto André 1989 - Maria Dinorah 1990 - Guilhermino César 1991 - Luis Fernando Verissimo 1992 - Paulo Fontoura Gastal 1993 - Carlos Reverbel 1994 - Nelson Boeck, Edgardo Xavier, Mário de Almeida Lima e Sétimo Luizelli 1995 - Caio Fernando Abreu 1996 - Lya Luft 1997 - Luiz Antonio de Assis Brasil 1998 - Patrícia Bins 1999 - Décio Freitas 2000 - Barbosa Lessa 2001 - Armindo Trevisan 2002 - Ruy Carlos Ostermann 2003 - Walter Galvani 2004 - Donaldo Schüler 2005 - Friar Rovílio Costa
References
External links Porto Alegre Book Fair website (in Portuguese)