FliMinas: A New International Book Festival Lands in Minas Gerais

Brasil · Culture

A new international book festival, FliMinas, has drawn big crowds and big names to Belo Horizonte, staking the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais a place on the literary map.

Brazil’s love of literary festivals just gained a major new entry. Between June 7 and 13, the city of Belo Horizonte hosted the first edition of FliMinas, an international festival devoted to books and reading.

The ambition was plain from the scale. Held at the cavernous Expominas centre, the festival expected to draw as many as 300,000 visitors over its seven days.

What made the first FliMinas stand out

The line-up gave the debut instant weight. Among the headliners was Itamar Vieira Júnior, the novelist whose bestseller about rural Brazil became an international success.

Also present was Ailton Krenak, an Indigenous leader and writer whose essays on nature and society have made him one of Brazil’s most influential living thinkers. He spoke in a session on literature and the natural world.

Around those famous names sat a wider cast. Roughly 230 independent authors took part, the kind of self-published and small-press writers who rarely get a stage of this size.

The programme reached beyond the page, too. Debates, workshops and children’s activities filled the week, including a panel revisiting the Clube da Esquina, the celebrated music movement born in the same region.

Why a foreign reader should care

For a reader abroad, FliMinas is a window onto a striking Brazilian phenomenon. The country runs a thick calendar of literary festivals, treating books as a form of mass public celebration rather than a niche pursuit.

Minas Gerais, a large inland state, is using the festival to claim a bigger cultural role. The guiding theme, borrowed from the great regional writer Guimarães Rosa, played on the idea that the state contains many worlds at once.

There is hard interest beneath the poetry. Organisers cast the event as an engine for the creative economy, expecting it to draw publishers, booksellers and cultural tourism into the city.

Reading as public policy

The festival also carried a clear educational mission. It handed out book vouchers and ran reading programmes aimed squarely at students and teachers in the public school system.

That focus speaks to a real national challenge. Brazil has long struggled to build a steady reading habit, and large festivals are increasingly treated as one way to bring books to new audiences.

Accessibility was built in as well, with sign-language interpreters, audio description and adapted materials throughout. The message was that the festival should belong to as many people as possible from its very first year.

The organisers behind the event are not newcomers. The same company runs the state book fair, lending the debut a base of experience and a ready network of publishers.

Their stated goal is bold. They want Belo Horizonte to sit among the major literary gatherings of Latin America, not merely Brazil.

A first edition cannot settle that question on its own. But the crowds, the names and the ambition suggest a festival that intends to stay on the calendar.

Minas Gerais has a deep literary pedigree to draw on. It is the home state of Guimarães Rosa, one of the giants of Brazilian fiction, whose words gave the festival its theme.

That heritage gives the new event a natural story to tell. A region long associated with great writing is now building the institutions to celebrate and extend it.

The hybrid format widened the reach further. Alongside the packed halls at the venue, parts of the programme streamed online for those who could not attend in person.

If the debut delivers on its promise, the payoff could be lasting. A successful festival can reshape how a city sees itself and how the world sees the city.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is FliMinas?

FliMinas is a new international literary festival in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Brazil’s Minas Gerais state. Its first edition ran from June 7 to 13, 2026, at the Expominas venue.

Who took part in the festival?

Headliners included novelist Itamar Vieira Júnior and the Indigenous writer Ailton Krenak. They appeared alongside around 230 independent authors across a week of debates, workshops and signings.

Why does the festival matter?

It positions Minas Gerais among Brazil’s major literary destinations and aims to boost the local creative economy. The festival also runs reading programmes for public-school students, addressing the country’s long-standing literacy challenge.