History

A brief history of OEBF festivals

 

The first international literary festival (OEBF-2012) was held on November 24-25, 2012 in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), gathering 1,300 guests and becoming the first such event after the Declaration of independence of the Republic. The festival was opened by ex-President of Kyrgyzstan — Rosa Otunbayeva and was highly appreciated by experts and the public.

 

The second festival of 2013 was held from 5 to 9 November in London and Cambridge, giving the opportunity for the British public to get a better idea of the creativity of the authors from the Eurasian Region.

 

The third festival was held from 14 to 17 November in Almaty, 2014. OEBF-2014 was organized jointly with the National State Book Chamber of the Republic of Kazakhstan with the support of the Ministry of Culture of Kazakhstan, Akimat of Almaty and the Kazakh Academy of Sports and Tourism.

 

The fourth and fifth festivals were held in London, Cambridge and Oxford, 2015-2016. The program was heavy: presentations of new books, lectures, concerts, poetry evenings, photo exhibitions, round tables, tours of the BBC Central office and the best universities in the UK.

 

The sixth festival was held in Stockholm from 17 to 20 November, 2017. The main events took place at the ABF Stockholm center in the halls named after Elsa Beskov and Olof Palma. At the end of the festival, the guests visited the national library of Stockholm and the international library of Sweden where the authors presented their books as a gift as a sign of friendship of peoples and cultural exchange.

 

The seventh festival was held in Thailand (Bangkok and Pattaya) from 23 to 27 November, 2018. OEBF-2018 was dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the outstanding portrait painter and revolutionary theater decorator Leon Bakst.

 

The eighth festival was held in Brussels (Belgium) from 13 to 17 November, 2019. That year, the opening ceremony of the festival was dedicated to the 175th anniversary of Abay and the festival teamed up with AidEx — to create an exibition on a mutual platform to bring attention to humanitarian issues currently affecting most post-soviet countries.

 

OEBF festival will be held in Madrid (Spain) on November 2020.

 

The international festival «Open Eurasian Book Forum & Literary Festival» has been held for 8 years.

The honorary guests of the OEBF festival were public figures: ex-President of Kyrgyzstan Roza Otunbayeva, ambassadors of Kyrgyzstan of Kazakhstan, the USA, Turkey, Northern Cyprus, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan; Professor of Oxford and Cambridge Universities; Ministers of Culture from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan; and even representatives of royal dynasties such as Her Highness the Princess of Yugoslavia and Serbia, Countess Yusupova Natalia Grigorievna and representatives of the House of Lords.

The festival was visited by such famous artists as Janusz Leon Wisniewski (Poland), Elchin Safarli (Azerbaijan), Paul Wilson (Australia), Mukhtar Shakhanov (Kazakhstan), David William Parry (United Kingdom), Nick Rowan (United Kingdom), Hamid Ismailov (Uzbekistan — United Kingdom), Georgy Pryakhin (Russia), Bolot Shamshiev (Kyrgyzstan), Abdulvahap Kara (Turkey), Erkin Agzamov (Uzbekistan) and many others.