Newark Book Festival

 Saturday I participated in the first annual Newark Book Festival. You never know how an event's going to go, especially if its the first year they're doing it, but the event organizers did it right.

 

We arrived at the location around 9am and people were already starting to set up their tables. My table mate had her books laid out and ready to go.

 

 I was working with a shoulder injury, so it took me a little longer than normal to set up. Plus, I only had 4ft to work with. But by 9:45 I was all set up and ready to go.

 

They had water and donuts for all the authors and their assistants. I didn't have a donut, but my husband said they were really good.

The day started out strong right off the bat. Within minutes of the event starting, we had people checking out the author tables.

 

They had an open mic for the authors to use, but it ended up not being as good of an idea as it sounded on paper. Most of the authors who used it couldn't be heard over the noise and the few authors who could be, ended up making it hard to hear the people who were actually at your table.

 

That, however, was the only hitch in an otherwise amazing event. Readers all over the area came to visit the 98 author and vendor tables. 

 

And to make the set up even better, they had the authors separated by genre. All the non fiction and memoirs were at one end and the fiction was at the other. For the most part, they kept the steamy stuff together and mixed in the non author vendors where it made sense.

 

The crowd stayed consistent until about 20 minutes before the end of the event. It was truly a place for book lovers and I can't wait to do it all over again next year.