The Los Angeles Festival of Books is a massive, free event hosted by the LA Times on the West Coast. Over two days, over 100,000 attendees and thousands of volunteers come together to celebrate the reading and writing of all kinds of genres-- poetry, cooking, young adult fiction, children's literature, and so much more!
This year, I was both a volunteer and attendee (Saturday and Sunday respectively). This was my first year volunteering, but fifth year attending-- and the experiences have only ever improved over the years. Growing bigger and bolder, the Festival of Books features vendors and panels discussing modern topics, writing tips, and up-n-coming debuts.
Event plug over.
The Basics
If you're looking to make friends while volunteering, there is certainly structure to do so-- many of the people who attend are book lovers and students from across the LA Country. Actual attendance is free in large thanks to volunteers!
The festival is located on the University of Southern California's Campus. There is tons of parking in the area, but most of the garages charge money through an app. Last year, it was only $14, but this year they raised the price to $20. I expect, with how popular this event was, it's possible they'll raise the price again for next year.
Lets Talk about Volunteering
Parking is free for the day you’re volunteering, though it’s a bit further away and we shuttled to the actual event. The overall process was easy and straightforward, with plenty of signage.
Again, this is my first year volunteering for the Festival of Books.
Check in was located at the USC Hotel, across the street from the event. If you have a huge preference about the kind of job you’d be doing, getting early is crucial. After checking in and receiving the volunteer shirt, you stand in various departmental lines and sign up for a specific station: Information Booths, Author Escorts, Panel and Signing Line Monitoring, and more. For my shifts, I was stationed at two different Information booths and assisted with directions, answered questions, and otherwise provided guidance.
Notice those little flags atop the booths? That's how we were able to tell where we were throughout the festival! Yellow was for the 'gold' area marked on the map.
The Weather was great: a bit sunny and warm, but nothing too awful. I recommend bringing an umbrella and sunscreen, as a majority of lines and walk paths are in the open sun. There isn’t a place to store personal items, so I brought my fanny pack and traveled light. Lunch was provided, and the selection was hearty and delicious; I had a turkey pesto sandwich, accompanied by some potato chips, cookie, and orange. Water is everywhere, and area leads (called Bookworms) checked in on us often.
Hey Bert, what did you do Sunday?
The Weather was great: a bit sunny and warm, but nothing too awful. I recommend bringing an umbrella and sunscreen, as a majority of lines and walk paths are in the open sun. There isn’t a place to store personal items, so I brought my fanny pack and traveled light. Lunch was provided, and the selection was hearty and delicious; I had a turkey pesto sandwich, accompanied by some potato chips, cookie, and orange. Water is everywhere, and area leads (called Bookworms) checked in on us often.
Hey Bert, what did you do Sunday?
I also visited some head liner booths, like the Ripped Bodice, Briarwick Candles, and Penguin Young Readers. The Ripped Bodice is an independently owned bookstore located on both coasts, specializing in romance novels, and I picked up a book titled Don't Want You Like a Best Friend by Emma R. Alban. I happened to be there when the author was signing books, and was able to have a delightful interaction and received a cute friendship bracelet from the booth.
Gone Girls
This panel highlighted three different authors with experience writing thrillers for Young Adults. A majority of the conversation revolved around their different perspectives regarding the genre and how their most recent books have taken shape. The second book I picked up at this festival was featured on this panel: The Summer She Went Missing by Chelsea Ichaso and got it signed. A Young Adult thriller featuring a disappearance in a vacation town, with questions about friendship, love, and secrets, The Summer She Went Missing seemed like an interesting and new take to the genre.
In the Age of Book Bans
I originally attended this panel to see Disney Channel Original Movie Lemonade Mouth’s Hayley Kiyoko, who wrote a F/F Young Adult contemporary story titled Girls Like Girls . She was joined on the stage by All Boys Aren’t Blue author George M. Johnson and Out of Left Field author Jonah Newman. The books featured on this panel highlighted Queer stories, and showed the impact of book bans on diverse fiction.
These amazing authors shared their experiences getting published and facing the modern public’s backlash in regards to their books. This panel really gave me chills, with multiple zingers from Johnson about bringing more ‘scorpio energy’ to the fight against censorship. The moderator asked questions that provoked critical thinking and guided a thoughtful conversation.
“Put words into the world, otherwise they don’t exist,” - George Johnson.
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