One of the oldest literary events in the region, its basic objective is enabling publishers, authors, booksellers, librarians, book distributors, multimedia companies and other participants to establish contacts, exchange experiences, do business deals and establish other forms of business and cultural cooperation.

About 12,000 books of all Yugoslav publishers were displayed there, but also of those from Austria, Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, UK, France, Italy, China, Hungary, East and West Germany, Poland, Romania, US, Soviet Union and Switzerland.

The first Belgrade Book Fair was opened by Mr. Rodoljub Čolaković, the Vice President of the Federal Executive Council at that time.

The International Book Fair in Belgrade gathered annually an increasing number of publishers from the former Yugoslavia and the whole world, so that after the Frankfurt and Warsaw Book Fairs, it became the largest meeting point of the publishing staff from Europe, America, Asia and Africa.

The Guest of Honor has the opportunity of presenting its publishing and culture at its stand as well as in the Fair's promotion conference halls, within the author meeting program, lectures and trade seminars.

The Guest of Honor may feature at the Fair the authors from its country, translators, publishers, distributors, as well as all those connected to the book in different ways.

Among others, the Fair was visited by Alain Robbe-Grillet, Erica Jong, Natsuki Ikezawa, Claudio Magris, Lyudmila Ulitskaya, Charles Simic, Elizabeth Abbott, Tony Parsons, Peter Handke, Patrick Besson, Gish Jen, Naim Kattan, Geir Pollen, Eugene Vodolazkin, Erlend Loe, Zakhar Prilepin...