Book Festivals and the Festivalgoer Experience

Best advice, know thyself

Hi readers,

In April, I went to the San Antonio Book Festival and the North Texas Teen Book Festival, and the experience with each couldn’t have been more different—I now know what works for me and won’t make a mistake like this again. I went to the Savannah Book Festival in February and had a great time. I thought it was well-produced, and I would return again next year. The thought of attending anything with thousands of “new friends” makes me stop and think, “Do I really want to go?” After the Savannah festival, I decided that being around that many people wasn’t as bad as I had imagined it would be.

With the Savannah experience in mind, I began online at the SABF website to review the authors, schedule, and parking—everything one needs to know when visiting a festival and a city they’ve never been to. After perusing the website for quite a while, I was a little miffed that I couldn’t find a grid schedule of all the festival events. The left side of the grid with times and the top of the grid with event locations to help me plan which authors I wanted to see and where the events were with respect to the next event. I searched the entire website, gave up, and started making a grid schedule. I happened to notice a button on an author event that said “add to schedule,” so I clicked it and did the same thing for a few more authors I wanted to see and then clicked “my schedule,” and lo and behold, there was the grid schedule I had been looking for, personalized with the authors and panels that I wanted to see. I’m sure you are thinking, “What’s so great about this?” To understand the greatness, you have to experience it yourself. I wish all book festivals would adopt this interactive method of allowing the festivalgoer to create their schedule this way.

The festival was held at the grounds of the SA Library, and several of the events were held inside the library, and a few were held outside in big event tents. The vendors were set up outside, and the food court with food trucks was segregated from the vendors and event tents in an area close to but not in the middle of the event. That was great planning, so walking from one event to the next or visiting the vendor booths didn’t require walking through the food court lines. Each event had plenty of festival volunteers to ensure the audio was perfect, to keep the event running on time, to get each author to their event, and then to the book signing tent after their event. You never had to look more than a couple of feet to find a volunteer to ask a question of, if needed. This festival usually has around 15,000 attendees spread out over the large area outside and the different event venues inside the library—you’d never know there were that many people there.

The SABF was a pleasure to attend. The author talks were interesting, and the moderators had a connection to the author they were talking with, which allowed for a better conversation. I walked away from each event with a big smile on my face, wanting to read more from each author. At the end of the day, I was exhausted, but my bookish heart was filled to the brim with so much fun.

1st row, l to r: Chihuly glass exhibit at festival Photo Booth, vendor row, author Roxanna Robinson. 2nd row, l to r: authors Elba Iris Perez & Isa Arden, authors Elizabeth Gonzalez James & Rae Giana Rashad, moderator Traci Thomas -Stacks Podcast. 3rd row, l to r: authors Roger Reeves & Myriam Gurba with Traci Thomas, author Amanda Churchill, author Latoya Watkins.

After much fun at the SABF, I decided to try the NTTBF—even though I knew I probably shouldn’t. I went back and forth over several days, deciding if I really wanted to attend another festival with thousands of “new friends,” those new friends would all be teenagers. There were authors I wanted to see, such as Ruta Sepetys, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, Julie Buxbaum, Jeff Kinney, Adib Khorram, Karen McManus, and many more, so I decided that hearing the authors speak was worth all the teenagers and boy, was I WRONG.

The NTTBF is sponsored by the Irving Library and held at the multi-story Irving Convention Center. The festival features middle-grade and young adult authors grouped on panels discussing their books, and these panels happen hourly throughout the day, ending at 3:30 with a huge book signing event in one of the convention center ballrooms. I perused the website before the festival day to decide which panels I wanted to attend; I made a separate list to make sure nothing overlapped and headed to the festival on festival day with moderate apprehension about the number of people attending that I had seen in pictures of previous years festivals. I visited the vendor booths that were difficult to get to amongst everyone standing in lines for giveaways, etc. I made my way up the escalator after having to wait at least 10 minutes to get on the escalator because of all the people. I headed to the first author panel I wanted to attend, and you couldn’t tell where the line for it ended and the line for the event in the ballroom next door began. I stood in line, entered the event, the only place to sit was toward the back, and I was miserable. I couldn’t see the authors very well, felt like a sardine in a can, and felt ancient amongst all the teenagers. Since I was in the back, I slipped out after several minutes and headed home.

I should have known an event like this in an enclosed multi-story convention center with one escalator to get between the floors wouldn’t work for me. I should have known that this many people in an enclosed space wouldn’t work for me. I should have known that this many teenagers (well-behaved, but teenagers nonetheless) wouldn’t work for me. I should have known that sitting in the back of the room (ballroom size room) to watch an author event wouldn’t work for me. Oh wait, I knew these things and went anyway; shame on me.

It wasn’t all bad—it was delightful to see the excitement of the teenagers getting to see their favorite authors. As I walked around, I could hear the excitement in the voices of the teens in conversations discussing the books they read and the authors they love, which made me happy. This might have been a better event for me had it been held primarily outside so everyone could spread out. In my opinion, the festival has outgrown this convention center and needs a new home—maybe the organizers realize this and will make changes for next year.

Photo Booth backdrop, logo above the escalator, just in case you think I was kidding about the people.

I hope you had a few laughs (it’s o.k. to laugh at me), shook your head a few times, and enjoyed reading about my experience at the book festivals. Anything that brings authors and readers together is a win. Just like books, not every festival will be enjoyable for every reader—reader and festivalgoer, know thyself. Have a great week and happy reading!