Por Redaccion 
The Department of Culture has orchestrated a dense and diverse program featuring all kinds of cultural and artistic initiatives and musical encounters, with the participation of award-winning and regional authors as well as the distribution of booths for all audiences. Various alternatives related to education and knowledge have been prepared to promote new ideas and thoughts among attendees, all centered around reading. Figures like Joaquín Lobato, Salvador Rueda, and Cervantes will be present through conferences, workshops, and discussions.
Regarding Miguel de Cervantes, the show «Florilegio» will be live-streamed for the hundred cities that are part of the World Cervantes Network, a combination of poetry, rhapsodies, theater, and music performed by actors and actresses, with the prolific Spanish Golden Age as the backdrop.
The work line of the Department of Culture of the City of Vélez-Málaga maintains the steps taken since the beginning of the legislature and continues with projects focused on promoting new ideas and proposals that encourage knowledge and learning among citizens. One of the cross-cutting axes is the promotion of reading habits, for which initiatives such as the regional meeting of reading clubs have already been projected, with great participation success, fostering collaboration and interaction among these groups to promote common projects.
Today, the set of activities planned for the commemoration of the most important date related to reading activity, World Book Day, celebrated today, April 23, has been presented, with an ambitious plan focused on various events around books and their relevance in shaping the personality of young people and individuals in more advanced ages. The 2025 Book Fair will be held next month.
The councilor of the Area, Alicia Ramírez, has envisioned a month of May «for and by reading and culture in Vélez-Málaga», for which a dense and varied poster has been prepared, accommodating multiple artistic disciplines such as theater, music, educational activities like storytelling, or book presentations. The multicultural approach will extend continuously from Friday, May 9, to Saturday, May 17, in an effort that reflects our commitment to providing citizens and visitors with different learning and leisure frameworks through shows, artistic activities, or concerts, clarified Ramírez, who also revealed that different monumental settings of the municipality will be prepared to host each of the initiatives and events coordinated by Culture.
«It is essential nowadays that the training and preparation of individuals are based on different cultural and artistic alternatives; that is the way we can achieve the development of the population and promote new ideas and projects,» argued the Culture councilor. «We organize these types of events, aimed at that goal and so that everyone who wants to enjoy the proposals we offer can do so to learn, but also to have fun.»
For the second consecutive year, the programming will introduce a series of book booths located in Las Carmelitas square, one dedicated to second-hand books and the other four provided by the Council to local bookstores, free of charge. As a major innovation, a space dedicated to local and regional authors will be presented, where they can exhibit, sell, and sign copies. The event will mainly take place in the aforementioned square, although there will be all kinds of activities and concerts in the plenary hall of the City Hall, central courtyard, Carmen theater, CAC auditorium, and Casa Cervantes. Important writers and disseminators will take part in this great fair, including Juan de Manuel de Prada, Boticaria García, or Antonio Manuel, among others.
The 2025 Book Fair program will kick off on Friday, May 9, with a tribute to our illustrious Joaquín Lobato, with poetry readings for the municipality’s schools. At 12:00, the official inauguration of the fair will take place, with visits to the booths and a combination of music with storytelling and marionette scenes. In the afternoon, there will be musical theater with Lorena, followed by the presentation of the winning poetry book of the «Joaquín Lobato Literary Contest City of Vélez-Málaga», at 8:00 pm in the plenary hall of the Vélez-Málaga City Council.
On Saturday, May 10, an intense day of events is prepared, with a literary laboratory for parents and children, poetry readings by Lobato for neighbors and associations, and storytelling about Don Quixote. At 7:00 pm, Ana Rufián will present the book «Transmit Your Ideas with Confidence and Security» in the plenary hall, before the lecture «How to Publish?» given by Beatriz Cerón at the CAC auditorium. The day will end with an opera performance of «The Magic Flute» at the Carmen theater. On Sunday, May 11, at 12:00 pm, the Municipal Music Band of Vélez-Málaga will perform.
Activities will resume on Monday, May 12, with «I Am a Knight», a puppet show at 7:00 pm. This will be followed by a discussion on the work of Elvira Roca in the council chamber. On Tuesday, Boticaria García will present her book «Your Brain is Hungry» at 6:30 pm at the Carmen theater. Music, theater, storytelling, marionettes, micro-story workshops, and the life and work of Salvador Rueda will dominate the afternoon session.
On Wednesday, there will be a didactic concert by the municipal band in the morning and a space for music, storytelling, and marionettes in the afternoon. Noteworthy activities in the afternoon include a handbag printing workshop, a session with the theater of Salvador Rueda, and a discussion in the council chamber about Joaquín Lobato. On Thursday, the aforementioned activities will continue, along with a concert by the Coraxalia choir, the presentation of the book «Archaeology of the Deep» by Antonio Manuel, and the guitar ensemble from Tokyo at the Carmen theater.
One of the central axes of this fair’s program is the presence of the Planeta Award winner, Juan Manuel de Prada, who will have an appointment on Friday, May 16, starting at 8:00 pm in the plenary hall, with the presentation of his new book, «The Night Has a Thousand Eyes.»
The last day of the Book Fair, Saturday, May 17, will conclude with the storytelling of «The Adventures of Baldomera the Little Donkey» and the show of poetry, rhapsodies, theater, and music «Florilegio» at Casa Cervantes. This final event, with performances by actors and actresses on the prolific Spanish Golden Age, will be live-streamed for all the cities that are part of the Cervantes Cities Network, with the participation of a hundred locations from around the world.
In conclusion, the Culture councilor emphasized that «we believe we have organized a great Book Fair, so I want to invite all the residents of the municipality and those from outside who want to join us to come to Las Carmelitas square and the other activity venues and enjoy that great invention that is the book.»
FUENTE