Cappelen Damm a Hit at the Oslo Book Festival

The first-ever Oslo Book Festival has been a smashing success. With over 130,000 visitors, the event far exceeded expectations. "We hoped for 70,000 and dreamed of 100,000," said festival chairman John Tørres Thuv. "It's clear that the festival is now a tradition in Oslo."

Cappelen Damm was prominent among the book publishers present, with 30 of its authors taking part. In addition, the publisher held two separate events: a Book & Bun Festival for children and a Literary "Vorspiel" for specially invited book club members and authors to listen to sneak previews of upcoming books by Erlend Loe and Jon Øystein Flink. Also featured was music from the band Gatas parlament (which incidentally has a book out from Cappelen Damm as well). "The Book & Bun event had 2,500 visitors in four hours - it was completely wild!" says Ingunn Lindborg,  press and publicity director at Cappelen Damm, and who also worked as press coordinator for the Oslo Book Festival. "For the Vorspiel we had about 100 visitors, which was also actually really good."

The festival featured 200 events and 20 venues, with two main locales: the new opera house in Oslo harbor and at the top of Oslo's high street, Karl Johan Avenue, between the National Theater and the Norwegian parliament. Rather than stands at a convention center, the festival used bookstores on Karl Johan Avenue. Cappelen Damm also used its own headquarters, a block away.

"It really exceeded our expectations," says Lindborg. "There were people everywhere!"