Despite her injured foot, Queen Letizia did not give up her annual tradition of presiding over the inaugural day of Madrid’s Book Fair, which takes place once a year in the capital’s biggest park.
Big event for Madrid
And so, on Friday 31st May, the Spanish queen arrived at El Retiro park, where she was welcomed by the Minister of Culture, the Mayor of Madrid, and the President of the Madrid Book Fair, among others.
As she was starting her tour, she took the opportunity to make a few stops in the media stations that are covering the event, including TeleMadrid and the National Radio, where she briefly chatted with presenters of the show Mañana Mas, asking them what they were reading at the moment.
Her Majesty went on to tour 16 of the 358 stands that make up the Fair for this year; those who received a visit include the National Police, which is celebrating its 200th anniversary, the Ministry of Culture, and the Municipality of Madrid, as well as several stands dedicated to publishers and bookshops. She also stopped by stands that highlighted specific geographical areas, such as Africa and Europe, and in the stand that highlighted childhood literature.
Queen Letizia focuses on children’s books
The latter stop was a way for Queen Letizia to highlight the theme for 2024, which is “Train your mind, read your body”, as many of the children’s publications and activities were dedicated to teaching children about skincare.
This year’s guest country was the Principality of Andorra, Spain’s neighbour to the north, which saw the first out-of-country engagement for King Felipe and Queen Letizia following the pandemic lockdowns. This is the second time that Andorra has featured as a guest country at the Fair, and the small Principality was represented for the occasion by its Minister of Culture.
Important summer for Spain’s royal family
The central topic for this year’s edition was sports, and this was also reflected in the poster, which was designed by artist Mikel Casal with the aim of showcasing that sports and reading are not necessarily in contrast, but that they can and should work together to keep a trained mind in a trained body.
Queen Letizia is no stranger to the fair, which she usually attends on her own; Her Majesty is notoriously a bookworm,, a trait she shares with her husband, to the point where she gifted the then-Prince of Asturias a rare edition of a book as an engagement present back in 2003.
King Felipe is currently in El Salvador, where he is attending the inauguration of reelected President Nayib Buckle; the couple hope to have the whole family reunited under the same roof soon, as Infanta Sofía finishes her first year of school in Wales and Princess Leonor ends her year of training in the Army – a day which will coincide with the King and Queen’s 10th anniversary on the throne of Spain.
