Fantasy festival draws top authors and publishers to Esbjerg

Fantasyfestival in Esbjerg has grown from a librarian’s training assignment into one of Denmark’s major literary festivals, attracting established authors, large publishers and international bestsellers, Danish broadcaster DR reports.

The festival was created by librarian Kirsten Bloch, who said she never expected the idea to become more than an assignment. Now in its 12th year, the event is being held in Esbjerg on 19 and 20 September and is expected to attract about 15,000 visitors.

Publishers and authors plan book releases around the festival, according to Anne Lind Andersen, a literature specialist at Gyldendal and a fantasy expert.

“Fantasyfestivalen is extremely important for Danish fantasy and has become completely unavoidable for us as a publisher when we plan releases,” she said.

The festival brings together established and emerging authors with some of the genre’s most committed readers. Visitors can attend author meetings, talks and book signings, with guests arriving from across Denmark and abroad.

Among this year’s guests is American bestselling author Sharon Kenyon, who has sold more than 70 million books worldwide.

To make room for the festival, 65,000 books were moved from Esbjerg’s main library overnight between Thursday and Friday. The books will be moved back overnight between Sunday and Monday. The event also uses the town square and Musikhuset.

Bloch said fantasy can make difficult subjects more accessible by placing them in imaginative stories. The genre often deals with war, anxiety, loneliness, sexuality, persecution and climate issues, she said, but dragons and wizards can make such topics easier to approach.

Fantasy is a literary genre in which magic, supernatural creatures and imagination play central roles. The Danish public libraries currently hold 27,224 fantasy titles.