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bd BOUM (comics festival)

bd BOUM is the leading free comics festival in France. Each year in Blois, the festival hosts numerous encounters and exhibitions, while 220 artists dedicate their work in the BD (bande dessinée) salon.

grands évènements culturels bande dessinée

Address:Throughout the town

Gratuit

Organized by: Maison de la bd

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Book fair

With 70 stands (publishing houses, booksellers, etc.)  and 220 artists giving autographs during last year’s festival, the book fair at the old Halle aux grains (ancient grain market) was — and is — at the heart of the bd BOUM event.

Encounters

During last year’s festival, 70 encounters were planned, including 40 meetings with 3,000 schoolchildren on field trips. An additional cycle of encounters involved persons working in the book sector: librarians, documentalists and social work specialists.

As for the general public, there were fifteen debates, in the presence of the artists, on themes taken up in comic strips.

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Exhibitions and other events

The 2019 festival will extend to the town’s other major cultural venues, with ten exhibitions; disciplines associated with comic strips will be involved. The Maison de la bd (comic strip house) nonetheless remains the principal host. A cinema cycle of animation films will take place at the Les Lobis art movie house. In 2018, participating authors gave a concert at Chato’do. Last but not least, the Hôtel de Ville (town hall) was engaged, and the House of Magic was transformed into a book, with Mystères à la Maison de la Magie, written by Thierry Bonneyrat and illustrated by Laurent Tardy.

Some key figures

  • 20,000 visitors
  • 3,000 schoolchildren
  • 220 artists signing autographs
  • 70 encounters
  • 12 exhibitions

The bd BOUM association

The bd BOUM association was created in 1984, on the initiative of persons working in the social sector, teachers, and militants for popular education. Since that time, the association has assumed a pedagogical orientation.

Since 1998, this orientation has been reinforced through a publishing project using the comic strip as an informative tool favoring social integration by creating works with social themes containing  testimony (on exile or illiteracy, for example).