Promoting a reading culture through innovative book festivals.

The highlight of the 2026 Lunar New Year Book Street Festival in Ho Chi Minh City, with over one million visitors in 8 days, generating nearly 8.2 billion VND in revenue and selling over 83,700 books, demonstrates the strong appeal of a well-organized and creative cultural space.

The Lunar New Year Book Street Festival 2026 attracted many young readers. (Photo: THUY BINH)

This year marks the first time the Lunar New Year Book Street Festival has been expanded to three locations: Le Loi Street (Saigon Ward), the New City Park ( Binh Duong Ward), and the Revolutionary Tradition House area (Vung Tau Ward), covering a total area of ​​over 13,600m² and bringing together 30 participating units. This expansion of space has contributed to creating conditions for a wider spread of reading culture within the community.

Notably, the space showcases a harmonious blend of tradition and technology. The Ho Chi Minh Cultural Space is designed using the artistic language of "Bamboo Forest Telling Stories," introducing many valuable publications about President Ho Chi Minh. In addition, areas dedicated to technology books, artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) applications, and a digital library reflect the digital transformation trend in the publishing industry.

The "book giveaway" activity at the beginning of the Lunar New Year was revamped with three methods: scanning a QR code to receive audiobooks, receiving books from an automatic book dispensing machine (ATM of Compassionate Books), or receiving them directly at the booth. Nearly 2,000 books, newspapers, and magazines were given away. With the diversification of experiences ranging from author meet-and-greets and book signings to workshops and thematic exhibitions, book buying has been promoted as an attractive cultural activity, rather than just a commercial transaction.

The success of this model shows that when books are placed within a creative festival ecosystem, with well-planned content and space, reading culture can attract a large audience, especially young people and family readers. However, while Ho Chi Minh City's success is a bright spot, we must also face the reality: Book festivals in many localities still lack coordination and are inconsistent in terms of organizational quality.

In many places, book fairs or book streets are still small-scale, short-lived, mainly focusing on discounted sales and a mix of goods, lacking experiential activities, academic exchanges, or technology applications. Mobilizing social resources remains limited; coordination between the cultural, educational , publishing sectors and other organizations is not yet truly effective. While some major cities have built iconic book festival brands, many localities are still struggling to find a suitable model.

This Lunar New Year in Hanoi, there were also activities related to books and reading culture, such as the Spring Book Street 2026 with the theme "Books Open the Spring Fortune - Welcoming a New Era," which was brightly decorated, attracting readers to visit, take photos, and experience the book space in the spring atmosphere. This event, along with smaller book fairs and cultural events in the capital, was organized concurrently with many festival activities, aiming to create a cultural highlight for residents and tourists at the beginning of the new year.

Similarly, some provinces and cities also organized the "Spring Book and Newspaper Fair 2026" in a format combining traditional and digital newspaper displays, extending the duration to give readers more choices and create a lively cultural atmosphere. However, according to general assessments, these activities are still on a small scale, lacking investment and failing to create a prominent highlight to attract a large number of readers.

Based on the above experience, the innovation of book festival activities needs to be placed within the national reading culture development strategy, linked to the specific characteristics of each region. Nguyen Nguyen, Director of the Publishing, Printing and Distribution Department, emphasized: “First and foremost, book festivals should be considered a comprehensive cultural space where books connect with performing arts, digital technology, skills education, and local tourism. Each locality can choose its own theme, exploiting the heritage, history, and representative figures of its region to create a unique impression.”

Furthermore, it is necessary to enhance the application of technology in organization and promotion: online platforms, audiobooks, QR codes, cashless payments, etc., to expand the target audience, especially in the context of strong digital transformation. In addition, it is necessary to promote social participation, encouraging businesses, publishers, schools, and libraries to participate, forming a network of linkages between localities, sharing organizational experiences and resources.

The success of this year's Tet Book Street Festival demonstrates the great potential of the book festival model when properly invested in. The question is how to transform this bright spot into a widespread, balanced, and sustainable "book festival map," becoming a crucial step in fostering reading habits, building a foundation of knowledge, and creating a healthy cultural life within the community.

MAI LU

Source: https://nhandan.vn/lan-toa-van-hoa-doc-tu-doi-moi-le-hoi-sach-post945578.html