The London Book Fair (LBF) has announced that it will bring forward the dates of next year’s fair (2024) to March to avoid a clash with the Bologna Children’s Book Fair.

 LBF Director Gareth Rapley said: “I’m pleased to announce that we have been able to move the dates for next year’s fair to 12th to 14th March 2024. Our top aim is to deliver a fair that works for as many of our attendees as possible, and this move has been made following extensive dialogue with our advisory board and industry stakeholders, who strongly backed the March dates.

“We appreciate that the tight turnaround between Bologna 2024 and LBF, if it had stayed at its previous April dates, would have imposed real logistical difficulties on exhibitors hoping to attend both fairs. It would also have prevented attendees to both fairs from having much downtime to take stock from Bologna and prepare for LBF.

“This will be a longer-term move to this period going forward, and we now are planning for LBF to be held around the same time in March from here on. We hope this provides welcome certainty for the international adult and children’s industry.“