Open Thread: Decatur Book Festival Reviews
Decatur Metro | August 30, 2008 | 9:36 amLet’s try something new…
This is an open thread for those that would like to share their DBF experiences from this weekend. Review a talk or just give your overall impressions of the event in the comments section below. Where are the best booksellers tents located or what’s the best kept secret of the weekend? You get the idea.
Once I get my butt up there this afternoon I’ll also chime in…plus, I might even snap a few pictures. Enjoy all!
P.S. How was Billy Collins?
I’m Stage Captaining for the teen stage all day, so I haven’t gotten to experience anything for my own age bracket. This is the first time DBF has had such a designated venue, and we’ve had some phenomenal crowds here. That, of course, pretty much sums up the outside world, though: masses of people everywhere! At many times Sycamore has looked like a one-way street. I saw a blind gentleman attemping to make his way through the crowd, and you could tell he wasn’t prepared for what he encountered (and vice-versa).
Why are significantly more people out this year when so much else is happening in the area at the same time? I’m thinking there may be many folks who cancelled vacation plans due to fuel costs or Gustav. It appears to have been another banner weekend already for local businesses; I felt extremely fortunate to sneak next door to Raging before they ran out of food at lunch.
I look forward to actually exploring the other venues and vendors tomorrow.
Thrilled to hear about the crowds. Can’t wait to hear the attendee totals next week!
Didn’t get up there ’til late today. Still lots of people walking around at 7p. Will get the full experience tomorrow. For now, stop listening to me and check out the AJC’s photos from today.
I started my DBF experience by serving as a volunteer on Friday. My very enlightening job was to check in authors at the HI. I met several, which helped drive today’s activities.
1st, was Lawrence Hill’s talk. A winner of the Canadian equivalent of the Pulitzer, he was very informative about a part of history that many of us never learned of– the African-American experience during the American revolution.
2nd: Celia Rivenbank. I swear I thought I was going to go into cardiac arrest I was laughing so hard. My husband calls her a female Dave Barry mixed with a young, southern Kathy Griffin. To quote Gilda… “thought ah was a-gonna dah!”
Very, very funny….That was- at least- until the toddler in the stroller in the middle of the aisle started whining and carrying on as though HE were the presenter.
Do I need to tell you what his mother did? You got it- NOTHING! Did the volunteers encourage her to remove him? Not that I saw. Did I consider risking arrest and lawsuits by climbing over my neighbors to whack both mother and child? ABSOLUTELY.
(side note: yes, as a matter of fact, my dogs DO behave better than that)
Sooo, basically, we missed a good part of Celia’s “open letter to Brittany (Spears)” Honestly, for those of you who think that’s a topic just way too pedestrian for you: yeh.. just see if you can keep from laughing.
Celia is way more than an author/journalist/humorist. She is a first rate actress & standup comedienne. Her delivery and accent were just about flawless. I’ve ordered one of her books, which are essentially expanded versions of many of her columns. I wonder if I’ll be disappointed without her there to animate them so well.
Next we tried to hear Clyde Edgerton. No dice– the venue was full long before we got there.
We missed several writers that we would like to have heard due to other obligations… John Dean, Eric Roston, Bailey White and others.
But all in all it looked like a well-attended and successful festival. Thanks to everyone who made it possible and wonderful!
Looking forward to next year– and we’ll be sure to clear our calendars!
Adam at “A Wee Blether” responds to my request for reviews with his own Top 10 list.
Well, I had a slightly more disappointing experience on day two. Although I enjoyed getting to actually attend a couple of events, I found the market itself to be very much lacking compared to past years. What was missing? Music! I realize that 99x (sponsor of last year’s music stage) is defunct, but it’s disappointing that another sponsor couldn’t be found and that this concept was apparently abandoned.
Also apparently missing: giveaways. Last year there were tons of magazines and books stacked in front of the Old Courthouse that were free for the taking. There were some really great finds there. And there was even an Atlanta Listens to Audiobooks booth giving away some very good Random House books on CD.
I realize the economy is different now, but I hope the organizers will work to reincorporate some of these concepts in the future.
Carl,
I’m sorry to hear you were disappointed by the lack of a music stage.
We didn’t remove it strictly because of cost/lack-of-sponsorship, but also from a perceived lack of interest down on N. McDonough and Trinity, where we put them in 2007. I had the sense that they were disappointed with the turnout down there.
In year one, we put the musicians on the Gazebo, and the sound of the concerts interfered mightily with readings in the Courthouse–there was no way we could continue with it. I’d be interested to know if all the Decatur Metro readers would like to have music at the book festival running through the day again. Perhaps we could set up a stage on Ponce at the corner of church, in front of what will be Leon’s.
Not sure where the folks listening to the music would hang out at Ponce/Church since there’s not a lot of room there. Music would be a nice adjunct, but I don’t think many people come to a book festival to listen to music. As for giveaways, that wouldn’t seem to me to be a primary reason for going either.
My general impression of the whole thing was excellent from personal observation and conversations with others, both on site and elsewhere. Recognizing I was from Decatur, people were voluntarily (pun sort-of intended) telling me how great the festival was and how much they and their children were enjoying it. Those who were not able to get into the venues to see some authors understood for the most part, but they were able to go to others that they did want to see.
I have 2 young kids so this is not an anti-kid rant by any means, but the strollers, people: if your kid can walk, please leave them at home. It was like a stroller traffic jam all weekend. I can understand bringing the stroller for infants, but there were more 3-4 year olds in strollers than I could count, and it made getting around a crowded event all the more difficult. Add to that the fact that a lot of these parents seem to feel that they have an automatic right of way at all time, and it was pretty frustrating.
I have no children, so I’m not an authority, but maybe the reason for so many may be that some folks come on foot from some distance away and, although the kids can walk when they get there, they can’t walk all the way to the square? Maybe some kind of “stroller corral” where they could be left while the family is at the festival?
BTW, there were many bicycles also, but it didn’t seem to be as a much of a problem because the cyclists found places to tie them up once they got there.
Just like a bike, there are any number of places outside the square to lock a stroller. Unfortunately most people did not do that.
Agreed on the strollers, particularly on the cramped part of Sycamore. We were discussing at dinner last night the number of folks that end up using the strollers to hold other items while the children walk freely about. People become obviously exasperated when they yield the right-of-way to a stroller only to realize it’s empty!
To go back to the music thing, does anyone know what the crowd was like for the concert Sunday night?
Pretty fair sized about half the plaza I’d say. Hey did anyone check out McSweenys booth. It was great, especially the Chris Ware stuff. Small publisher out of San Fra. Beautiful, imaginative stuff.
The Vinson Gallery show of Skip Williamson’s stuff also rocked.
What was the rocking chair guy doing at a book fest?
I had a great time working at City Hall Saturday and Sunday, but I wasn’t able to check out too many of the other venues because of it. All of the City Hall programs were really well attended. We had to turn people away at the Clyde Edgerton, Hollis Gillespie, and Politics in Georgia sessions because of over-crowding issues. I loved hearing Skip Williamson’s talk about being both an underground cartoonist/graphic artist and a successful art director for national magazines. Eric Roston and Jay Hakes had a really engaged audience for their Carbon and Energy presentation. Billy Collins was even more hilarious than I anticipated. I had heard him on NPR before, but he was even better in person. So, in my humble opinion, the DBF was fantastic this year!
Who is the rocking chair guy?
Kids book perspective here – Our CBAIS (Children’s Book Authors and Illustrators of the South) booth could not have been in a better location! And what a thrill that our bubble machine made the AJC. We were all pleased by the constant flow of traffic we had and we sold almost half our stock (along with getting the word out about our group). I also spoke twice during the event and was pleasantly surprised by the audience size each time, especially at the end of the day Sunday. People just didn’t go home! They kept milling around and enjoying the scene. The big secret was the crowd was a bit smaller on Sunday which made for a much more laid back experience. Good day to go.
I kept a running blog during the weekend which you can read here.
Daren, you and Tom and all the rest deserve major thanks, please accept mine as well!
LOVE, LOVE the DBF!!
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I like the “stroller corral” idea. Definitely do-able. Do you think anyone would really use it?
I am “the tall rocking chair guy” and I wanted to demonstrate our new invention–an outdoor rocking chair that sits a bit higher so you can see over your porch rail. The Book Festival was a perfect event for me because I’m a local company, and the demographic of festival participants is exactly who I’d like to reach.
I’ve got a video of some of the ‘rockers’ on my web site.