Warsaw's International Book Fair, which has been held since 1958, has been squeezed out by a rival enterprise and will not be taking place in the capital this year.

Grzegorz Guzowski, president of the Ars Polona organisation that organises the book fair, has been compelled to cancel this year's event outright.

“Since 2010, the International Book Fair has been the target of an unusually fierce attack, without respect to any fair market rules,” he laments.

“Last year, a competing company organised their own event called Warszawskie Targi Książki (Warsaw Book Fair) in the same place and almost at the same time, with the use of the long-lasting tradition created by Ars Polona, and copying formulas already created by us.”

Guzowski acknowledges that the rival event led to “a negative financial result for last year's International Book Fair in Warsaw and a loss inflicted on our company.”

Nevertheless, Grzegorz Gauden, the president of the Polish Book Institute, suggests that Ars Polona may have brought the problem on itself.

Speaking of the new rival, the “Warsaw Book Fair”, which stole Ars Polona's thunder last year, Gauden says that “virtually all of the major Polish publishers are behind it”, and this “speaks for itself.”

The Warsaw Book Fair was founded on the initiative of a group of publishers that had long complained about the high prices proposed by Ars Polona.

However, the old guard claims not to have given up the ghost quite yet. Ars Polona's president concludes that “we do believe that next year, the International Book Fair in Warsaw will have the pleasure to invite you to the 56th International Book Fair.” (nh)