The City of Gaithersburg has schooled the country on how to put on a book festival. Its first annual festival held on Saturday was a smashing success.
The focus of the event was its showcasing of 56 authors, each having an hour for presentation and questions from 10-4 in eight different tents.
But there was much more. There was a book sale tent, a used book area, events for kids, food and sponsor tents.
Crab cakes and lemonade for nine bucks!
There were too many people over too large an area for a head count. We would not be surprised if attendance reached four digits.
Many VIPs came. In addition to the Gaithersburg City Council, your author saw Council Members Phil Andrews and Marc Elrich, House Majority Leader Kumar Barve, Delegates Lou Simmons and Jim Gilchrist, Senate candidate Cheryl Kagan and County Council candidate Hans Riemer. There may very well have been others.
Hans Riemer (left) with Marc Elrich.
Your author was one of the presenters, and the only one who did not have to do a book signing. (How does one sign the Internet?) For once, the politicians gathered to grill the rogue blogger who has long tormented them. What fun it must have been for them!
Cheryl Kagan meets a very tired Andres Pagnucco. Let Cheryl teach you how to smile, little man!
The best reviews came from the authors themselves, many of whom have worked in other book events. Here are a few of their comments.
Erica S. Perl: “Here here! Very impressive in terms of organization, totally fun, and gorgeous weather too! Thanks so much for having me and congrats on what I'm sure will be a longrunning tradition!”
Sarah Blake: “I second that! It was a lovely lovely day--full to the brim of books and talk! Thank you Gaithersburg!”
Miranda Lobs: “I agree with everything already said. Thanks for all your hospitality. Everyone was so nice! What a successful event and you would never know this was your first book festival. Great job you guys!”
John Feinstein: “I wanted to throw some kudos today in the direction of the people who ran The Gaithersburg Book Festival on Saturday. I am always leery of book festivals and book fairs, in part because there is no guarantee anyone will show up, in part because they often are very poorly organized. This one—first time out of the box—was run with precision timing; lots of volunteers who knew what they were doing and good crowds—helped no doubt by a perfect weather day. The audience I spoke to had plenty of people and enthusiasm, which was terrific.”
Alan Orloff: “The weather was great, the event was extremely organized and well-attended, and the roster of participating authors was awesome.”
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Gaithersburg Writes the Book on Book Festivals
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4 comments:
So why is the council cutting the library budget 25%? That is the last place I would cut. Reward curiosity and imagination.
Robin, perhaps you are confused. This wonderful event was hosted by the City of Gaithersburg -- not by the County. The County's cuts to libraries, while unfortunate, bear no connection to the City's ability to host a tremendous event like this. I should also note that this event will (hopefully) be "revenue neutral," meaning that City coffers won't be covering the cost. We had many generous sponsors from the private sector. It just goes to prove that you can budget conservatively, make painful but necessary cuts, and still find creative ways to fund important cultural events without using taxpayer dollars.
Ryan, I'm not confused, just a bibliophile. I had Montgomery County bookmobile card no. 90. My Dad was a Rhodes scholar who worked for 40 years in the Library of Congress and who used to bring me home 6 books a week. The council caters to mediocrity and has cut the county library budget by 25% because there aren't enough librarians to make a difference in the Democratic Primary. These cuts are an insult to every thinking person in Montgomery County and come in a week when the school system has added six non-teaching school administrators at a cost of $2 million. Robin Ficker
Mr. Ficker,
I share your concern with the fate of our libraries and your admiration for the Library of Congress. I was an avid user of it when I worked on Capitol Hill and my poor wife still drags home random books for me every few weeks. My latest book obsession outlet is amazon.com, where you can get great used books for just a few pennies (in your speak, that is a few 20% sales tax increases).
The County Executive's proposed cuts to the libraries budget is $8,464,840, about 22% of last year's total. You have helpfully filled about 25% of the hole by identifying $2 million that could be taken from the school system and put towards the libraries. I do not know anything about those positions, but assuming they will work as offsets (funds we can use to plug the libraries budget) where do we get the other $6 million?
If you are successfully elected County Executive (is that what you're running for?) and slash services back to the 1998 levels, will that also mean slashing the libraries budget in half? Will you do that by cutting operating hours? Will you actually close any libraries? Will you unplug the library computers, a huge area of growth in libraries nationwide since 1998? What's the plan to roll the County libraries back the way you have proposed rolling everything else back?
-Marc
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