Royce Hall at UCLAFor those unfamiliar with this great event: Every year UCLA's main campus has hundreds of booths manned by various components of the publishing industry (everything from publishers to authors, to retailers) and food vendors swarming with readers and authors alike. If you're a book person, or even if you just kinda like to read good stories, this is something you need to experience.
The highlights of the Festival are the speakers and panel discussions that often involve well known writers and celebrities. There are also several stages throughout the campus where you'll find celebrities of varying reknown reading kids books. The panels discussions and speaking engagements are typically ticketed events and thanks to the glorious monopoly that is Ticketmaster, there's a 75 cent per-ticket charge for these. But it's worth the price when you get to see things like Ray Bradbury in conversation with the late special effects master Ray Harryhausen . Plus, there's always a number of authors there just to autograph their books. In 2004 I had the distinguished pleasure of stumbling upon Kavalier and Klay and Wonderboys author Michael Chabon, who was wandering around looking for a booth he was supposed to be signing autoraphs in. Since I knew exactly where this booth was, I walked him around the grounds and got to have a little person conversation along the way with an author I greatly admire.
This year, we got Dr. Phil McGraw and Ron Jeremy (yep, THAT Ron Jeremy) among a few others .
The highlights of the Festival are the speakers and panel discussions that often involve well known writers and celebrities. There are also several stages throughout the campus where you'll find celebrities of varying reknown reading kids books. The panels discussions and speaking engagements are typically ticketed events and thanks to the glorious monopoly that is Ticketmaster, there's a 75 cent per-ticket charge for these. But it's worth the price when you get to see things like Ray Bradbury in conversation with the late special effects master Ray Harryhausen . Plus, there's always a number of authors there just to autograph their books. In 2004 I had the distinguished pleasure of stumbling upon Kavalier and Klay and Wonderboys author Michael Chabon, who was wandering around looking for a booth he was supposed to be signing autoraphs in. Since I knew exactly where this booth was, I walked him around the grounds and got to have a little person conversation along the way with an author I greatly admire.
This year, we got Dr. Phil McGraw and Ron Jeremy (yep, THAT Ron Jeremy) among a few others .
As a bonus, Sightseer also saw legendary UCLA basketball and leadership mentor John Wooden! His Pyramid of Success is still held in high regard today.
Okay, so here's my one bit of beef, not with the actual Festival, but with its "celebrity" guests. Show your fans the appreciation they deserve. Or at least pretend. We who come to see you and have you sign our books at the designated booksigning booths are there because we admire/support/love what you do and who you are. And, unlike a Star Wars convention I've attended (coughCelebrationIIcough), most of the people that come to see you aren't rabid dorks (I mean that affectionately.)
The Festival is typically held in the last weekend of April each year, with tickets available the Sunday before. It's always worth checking out who's going to be there and what they'll be doing. Past guests have included the likes of Julie Andrews, Jay Leno, Michael Connelly, Erik van Lustbader, John Lithgow, Ray Bradbury (he's usually there each year), Arianne Huffington, Maria Shriver, Don Cheadle, and, Mary Higgins Clark.
And this is for those of you who want to know more about the upcoming Star Wars convention in LA. Cool factor- they will be running all six movies back to back!
May the Force be with you.
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