Benengeli Festival Reaches 17 Cities

Why this is here: The festival will feature twelve three-minute video capsules where authors reflect on their relationship with libraries and how they fuel literary imagination.

The Instituto Cervantes organizes the sixth Benengeli Festival, running from May 25 to 29 across 17 cities worldwide. This year’s festival features prominent Hispanic authors like Lorenzo Silva, Yolanda Pantin, and Leonardo Padura. Activities will take place in cities including Sydney, Australia; Brussels, Belgium; and New York City, USA.

Four additional cities—Caguas, Puerto Rico; Caracas, Venezuela; Edimburgo, United Kingdom; and Quito, Ecuador—join as guest locations. The festival will offer 57 events, encompassing both in-person and digital formats. These include video interviews, radio programs, and original stories crafted for the event.

This year, Fernando Iwasaki curates the festival, focusing on the relationship between literature and libraries. While the festival includes multimedia contributions from collaborators in cities like Prague and Bogotá, it does not currently address how accessibility might vary across different locales. The event continues with plans to expand its digital archive and reach.