The gray heron that comes down from its nest every weekend to soak in the pond of the science cloister of the University of Barcelona looks around today, astonished, at the noise that echoes in the hallways. On Saturday and Sunday, nearly 2,000 people will interrupt the valuable silence of this bird to participate in the Crush Fest, the first large-format festival of literature for youth and young adults “in Spain, and in Europe. To date, something like this has only been seen in the United States, where there is the Book Bonanza, created by the best-selling author Colleen Hoover,” says Tomás Casals, director of Bookish and main promoter of this event. This Saturday all tickets have been sold and very few remain for today.
There are several groups of young people who have come today more than two hours before the doors open to get a privileged position in the signing queue, such as Belén Blanca, who has managed to be the first to meet the Australian author C.S. Pacat. “I wanted a dedication for my friend, who is a big fan, and she couldn’t risk running out.”
More than fifty national and international authors, such as Karen M. McManus, Rebeca Stones, Mercedes Ron, Blue Jeans or Inma Rubiales, will be present at this event, which is intended to be annual and to bring together readers from different parts of the world, such as Samanta Gómez, from Mexico, who is on an exchange for a few months and compares this concentration of writers with the Guadalajara Fair although, she insists, “there they are not only about youth literature like here. The truth is that this is a very interesting offer.”
Paula Cruanyes comes alone from Valencia and explains that “before coming here I was able to make many friends thanks to the festival’s official Telegram channel and others that have been created on Whatsapp parallels.” She is looking forward to meeting her favorite authors – the vast majority are women – and participating in both the podcast workshop and the bookmark painting workshop. While she waits, she walks through the book market and fills out, together with her new friends, a questionnaire to find her literary match. “The idea is to provide as much detail as possible about your reading tastes and, in theory, in a few hours, someone like-minded will contact me through social networks.”
The booktoker CeceLicious, known online for her book recommendations, is in charge of making the union. “It’s not loving at all. Well, you never know. The goal is to meet people and find someone with whom you can talk about similar literary topics.” A good idea if someone is looking for a companion and new friends for tonight’s literary party at the Estació de França, and in which there will be no shortage of music or young authors of the moment. “Next year I will repeat for sure,” says Cruanyes.
