Decatur Book Festival Draws Record 90,000 Over Labor Day Weekend
Decatur Metro | September 4, 2014 | 9:40 am
The DBF just sent out this press release…
An estimated 90,000 book lovers poured into downtown Decatur over Labor Day weekend for the 2014 AJC Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical (AJC DBF), the ninth installment of the largest independent book festival in the country.
More than 600 authors packed 19 different stages, families enjoyed two children’s parades, and festivalgoers were treated to yet another fantastic art|DBF arts and culture showcase. The festival kicked off on Friday night with a sold-out Keynote Address by famed literary icon Joyce Carol Oates.
AJC DBF Programming Director, Philip Rafshoon, was thrilled with the outcome of this year’s festival.
“It was another record-setting year for the Decatur Book Festival, and our hundreds of events went off without a hitch,” said Rafshoon. “From our Keynote and Kidnote addresses on Friday, until the last book was signed on Sunday night, we had larger crowds than ever before and a solid, quality lineup across the entire literary spectrum.”
AJC DBF Executive Director and co-founder, Daren Wang, said he continues to be amazed by the growing success of the festival each year.
“Every year the AJC DBF tries to outdo and redefine itself. This year our author lineup was phenomenal and we brought in new types of programming with art|DBF, the Decatur Makers Tent, and our outdoor cooking stage,” said Wang. “The audiences were larger, more diverse, and even more engaged. It was easily the best DBF so far, but you ain’t seen nothing yet.”
This year, I managed to get into every event I wanted to before it closed due to capacity. Seemed to be longer gaps between start times, so I guess that helped.
Congrats to Daren, Philip, Diane and all involved in staging this well-run event. Number of visitors is just astounding.
It was a great weekend, for sure. Would love to know how they arrive at the number of visitors. I wonder if the festival causes any movement in the NY Times best seller list.
can’t speak directly to the question, but tangentially, as we were standing in line on Saturday to get Kazu Kibuishi to sign my son’s books, i was speaking with a cardiologist from New York who had just written a book on US healthcare that was to debut on the NYTs Best Seller list on Sunday.
seems to me that puts the DBF near the top of must dos for newly published authors seeking the broadest audience.
I thought the festival was particularly smooth this year, all the more impressive if it was bigger than ever. The 1/2 hour interval between sessions is helpful so that one has time to buy the book from the last session, get it signed, and still make it to the next session. Having said that, I did get turned away from two “at capacity” venues–one at the City Hall venue and one at the Marriott Conference Room C. I can imagine that it’s hard to predict exactly what the turnout for a particular session will be and thus assign the appropriate size venue.
Thanks to all of the staff and volunteers who made the weekend such a fantastic experience. The book festival is one of the reasons we would never leave Decatur.
Question: As the festival continues to grow, has there been consideration given to having events on Labor Day?
Another idea: Could it be moved to a date later in the fall? When it’s not so hot and there isn’t another huge, conflicting event like Dragoncon? Columbus Day or Veteran’s Day? Or even a regular weekend if Monday isn’t going to be involved?
+1 for that
i could be heard repeatedly muttering, “it hot”
Yaaaaaas! A November book festival. Love it.
I get the conflicting events argument, but as for the heat this is largely an indoor event. What we need are more outdoor events in October/November.
The adult lit author sessions are indoors but not the booths, food, teen lit, children’s lit, cooking, and music. I definitely avoided the outdoor activities this year because it was hot. It’s just a thought. 90,000 people came so it’s not like the date needs to be changed to increase attendance.
Don’t get me wrong: I wouldn’t mind if it were in October or November (though there aren’t really any Monday holidays in those months), but I wish we had more outdoor activities then. The days are shorter, but the weather, imo, is vastly superior to summer. What about a Halloween-related festival?
Harvest festival is another one that’s been thrown around in the past. I think that could be a killer festival around these parts. Just need the people power to move it forward.
We would need Lil’ Sebastian for that.
Up in horsey heaven, here’s the thing
You trade your legs for angels wings
And once we’ve all said good-bye
You take a running leap and you learn to fly
You’re 5000 candles in the wind.
I’m sure everyone remembers school carnivals. Maybe something like that, but a bit more grown-up. There could be bobbing for organic, locally grown apples. And a Non-GMO corn maze. Maybe a bonfire on the square fueled by all the preemptively felled trees.
There was much less debauchery than I expected from a literary crowd. And much less cosplay. No one wanted to dress like Jonathan Franzen or Gabriel Garcia Marquez? Maybe next year…