Tucson Festival of Books

It’s a book fair. Which is fine. A few displays/​demos that are cool (especially for kids). If you plan it right you can get to hear several talks. Alas, we didn’t. Maybe next time. I can’t say I’m a fan, but I can say for those interested this would make for a great outing. And I do think it great the University does this.

First time at the TFoB. Won’t be the last. Went Sunday afternoon. A bit more chill than the frantic crowds of Saturday, or so we’ve been told. Went to see a specific author. Saw her and got an autograph. Total geekdom. Lots of vendors in the mall. Literary stuff, food vendors and entertainment. Well organized. Lots of helpful volunteers. It’s non profit and for a good cause. Read more. Introduce someone else to the joy of reading. A mind is a horrible thing to waste.

I volunteered at this Festival each of the last two years, and it is a great festival to both volunteer at as well as attend. From my knowledge, it is the 4^th largest book festival in the United States, and it is the highest-​attended event in all of Tucson (there were over 130,000 who came in 2014!).
A neat thing about this festival is that there is a Science City on the east side of the festival grounds, which includes some pretty cool science demonstrations from various science-​related organizations. So if you’re tired of the main area where you could meet all the authors, you could head off to Science City and take part in some other interactive activities there!
I didn’t volunteer much in 2013 (I was at Science City), but I volunteered in 2014 and had quite a blast! In addition to a community outreach shift I had the Saturday before the Festival (which was also fun), I had six shifts during the festival: Authors Pavilion, Friends of the Festival, Teacher’s Professional Development, Children’s Book Give-​away, Entertainment Support, and Information Booth.
There were four authors pavilions situated around the festival grounds, and I was stationed at the Children’s Authors Pavilion. It was awesome to get an up-​close-​and-​personal view of each author as well as their books.
There were three Friends of the Festival booths situated around the festival grounds, and I was responsible for encouraging attendees to become Friends of the Festival to ensure that the Festival of Books remains free of charge to all; there were some pretty good benefits to becoming a Friend of the Festival (like being invited to exclusive events). However, I was also asked a lot of questions about the festival as well; as a matter of fact, I got more questions there than when I was at Information Booth!
Teacher’s Professional Development is where you could attend panel meetings and get credit towards your teaching credentials. For every meeting you attend, a volunteer would stamp your sheet to signify that you did attend the talk in full. The one downside is that even though a panel meeting may last for an hour and a half, you would only get credit for one hour since the last half hour is Q & A. But the panel meetings are pretty cool. The authors share their story of how they became authors and how they became interested in the first place. Members of the audience get to ask questions to any or all of the authors, and some of the authors will give out responses ranging from the informative to the hilarious. I believe you could have gotten a maximum of 10 hours of credit towards your teaching credentials during the entire two days of the Festival.
At Children’s Book Giveaway, anybody can go into the tent and select a book of their choice as long as they had a kid with them. It was one of the most popular tents, but also, unfortunately, one of the tents where you’ll find the angriest people (I bumped into an angry man, and our liaison encountered another crazed madman).
Several (I don’t remember how many) crossword puzzles were scattered throughout the festival grounds. I was assigned to the Sports Crossword. As big a sports fan I was, that crossword was incredibly difficult to complete! A lot of people stood by for several minutes getting no more than one word correct. Those who got more than one word usually cheated and saw the answer from what was written before (thank you erasers for not doing your job lol).
Six Information Booths were spread around the festival grounds. If you had any question about anything regarding the festival (or had a concern e.g. a lost child), you would go to an Information Booth to ask your question or voice your concern. Not all the volunteers will know the answers to everything, so they will have walkie-​talkies to communicate with one another and find the answer to any question. During my three-​hour shift, I don’t think any one question from anybody went unanswered.
It was a rewarding experience volunteering at the Festival of Books. I really enjoyed it! Too bad I volunteered so much that I missed out on all the activities they had (including a Where’s Waldo?). Since I’m not in Tucson anymore, please enjoy the festival for me next year whether you are volunteering or just simply attending!

We came from Seattle for the festival and weren’t disappointed. The event was extremely well organized. I will likely be back many times. Thank you so much for being free! I am able to, so I did make a donation; but all those years when I had more financial obligations it was free festivals like this that really were valuable.
I loved the fact that sessions did not start until 10am! I hate starting early on weekends! (My work day starts about 6am so this schedule gave me plenty of time to get rolling in the morning!)
The inclusion of all sorts of «books» was wonderful. There was a 13 yr old author of a healthy cookbook; seasoned award winners who shared inspiration; new authors with new ideas; thoughtful writers who were great teachers; successful writers who shared their joy!

My only suggestion: have a 2 hour ‘siesta’ between morning and afternoon sessions so that we can have a liesurely lunch and do some serious shopping — OR — encourage the vendors to stay open after the last ‘session’ finishes. Maybe keep the music and vendors going till 6pm so there’s more shopping opportunities? I was so busy going to the sessions on Saturday I didn’t spend half of what I’d budgeted for that day! On Sunday I skipped a session so I could do some shopping and enjoy the steel drum music with my lunch.

This is the third festival we have gone to and each time they seem to get better and better. We went on the early side about 11 AM and it was already getting so busy with all sorts of people enjoying the beautiful weather. Glad to see that Tucsonans are into reading and educating themselves to the wonder of books. Last night we watched Bill Maher show and his guest was Dr. Alan Weisman who wrote his latest book «Countdown» about the overpopulation of the earth. He was quite interesting on the show. As we were walking around the book festival we saw him signing his books. I was able to talk to him and congratulated him on his appearance on Bill Maher’s show. He must have hopped a flight last night to make it to the festival today. Loads of food stands all over the place. The U of A mall was jammed packed with people eating, gathering, and just enjoying the day. We are really so lucky in Tucson to have this marvelous event every year. All the museums were free admission I believe and the kids were having a ball especially the Flandrau Center. Lots of minerals, and scientific stuff for the kiddies.

This was the first year I went and I loved it. The crowds were crazy on Saturday but it was well worth it to see Patricia McConnell’s seminar on Dog Behavior.
The weather was great and I will definitely be going next year!

The Tucson Festival of Books is a unique event and from what I understand from volunteering last year is that is now grown, in it’s fourth year, to become the third largest festival of it’s kind in the country. Personally I love the children’s literacy activities as well as Science City, a great place to jazz up kids young and older alike about science related careers. This is also a great venue to meet indie artists and authors. Sure the well known authors and the signings are great, but my favorite aspect is the community spirit and focus on literacy.

I love that Tucson loves to read so much. And this incredible event gets cooler — and more crowded — every year. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the weather is usually magnifico. Or that it’s FREE. (Even the parking is free!)
Reluctantly, I passed on a what is sounding like an amazing Unilocal event (from the growing list of reviews) to be here first thing Saturday morning. Authors are like rock stars to me. If that makes me a nerd, clearly I’m in good company.
I very quickly learned that you have to arrive AT LEAST 20 minutes in advance to see best-​selling authors. So missed out on an hour with Lisa See. However, Luis Alberto Urrea («The Hummingbird’s Daughter,» «The Devil’s Highway») and Mary Doria Russell «The Sparrow,» «Doc») were brilliant and hilarious together.
And T.C. Boyle («The Tortilla Curtain,» «The Road to Wellville») was such a treat. Like Woody Allen’s much taller, not-​so-​depressed cousin. He read to us – and then fielded questions — quirky, yet dapper in his red high tops and mustard yellow jacket.

Once again, there isn’t time to see every session I want to see. But I’m not complaining. I have all day tomorrow … with Margaret George, Pam Houston, Elmore Leonard… ro-​o-​ock stars!
Kim Edwards, author of a little novel called «The Memory Keeper’s Daughter» (translated into Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, French, Spanish, Polish, Chinese, Hebrew and Turkish), said Tucson’s Festival of Books ranks among the top international book festivals she’s attended. How cool is that?

For Tucson, this is a big deal. Once a year it is a festival on the U of A lawn for a bunch of nerds. Yes, it is actually broadcast on CSpan. If you are a nerd, you know this is cool. There are hundreds of booths, many Arizona-​themed, Arizona authors, or Arizona Publishing Companies. There are also many booths unrelated to books and entertainment. It is, without a doubt, a great event for families. I love the cooking tent which always has local chefs and even food network stars talking and signing books. It is usually the second weekend of March. Don’t miss this local gem!