More than 100,000 books were distributed free of charge in Lahti, everything went

Lahten the Free Book Day charity event organized at the exhibition center on Saturday attracted 9,240 visitors. This is what the entrepreneur of Finlandia Kirja online bookstore from Orimatti, who organized the event, said Matti Pietilä HS by phone on Sunday morning.

“It was a huge success and we were surprised ourselves that so many people came. The tables were completely empty at the end, even though there were 115,000 books on display. You could see individual books here and there.”

As as the name of the event indicates, the books distributed were free and you could take as many as you wanted. The average visitor took around 12 books with them.

About 50,000 of the books were from Finlandia Kirja’s own warehouses. In addition to that, many publishers had delivered unsold new books from their own warehouses to the site, which otherwise would have been destroyed. About 65,000 of them were available.

“The people in the exhibition hall were very polite and calm, even though there were thousands of people inside at a time. Such a low, friendly tone of voice, no noise and no rushing,” says Matti Pietilä.

The event its success was at least partially influenced by the fact that it was free. The event has been organized since 2014, initially at the bookstore’s own premises in Orimattila. After the premises became too small, the event moved to Lahti in the early 2020s and was organized together with the Lahti fair, in connection with the Lahti Kätevä & Tekevä handicraft fair. At that time, fair visitors were charged an entrance fee.

Now, however, the event was organized independently and without an entrance fee. There is no certainty about the continuation yet, says Matti Pietilä. Organizing the event costs the bookstore several tens of thousands of euros, even though the city of Lahti supports the event with about a tenth of the costs.

“This is quite an effort for us, since we are a bookstore and donating books is not our core business. But always after the event, we get extra energy when we have seen all the happy people who have found books and given feedback.”