Festival Saturday was chock full of authors. Even though I had other people doing operations, I still had some chores so I wasn't able to just stroll around town aimlessly and enjoy the show, but I did get to spend more time in the audience than I have in past years.
Hometown favorite Andre Dubus was packed as always.
But Elizabeth Strout's crowd was event bigger. The line for her signature wound around the church foyer and out the door.
I put Chris to work again this year - moderating Joanna Rakoff. Joanna wrote one of my favorites - "My Salinger Year". I snagged her when I saw on Facebook that she "liked" the festival page. I was so excited to see that she liked us!!
Sadly, the festival was on the same day as a funeral for a local fireman. They closed one of the streets for the funeral procession.
Back to our regularly scheduled festival…the next event I attended was Andre and Elizabeth Strout in conversation. Leslie, Vicki's daughter, was the moderator. This was one of the "big" events of the festival and all my pals were there….Bill, Laura, Stacey…but next to Stace was Elizabeth, Kats and Karen. Elizabeth and Karen are fellow local Booktopians.
Emily, Lisa, Earle and Chris were also there...
Andre, Leslie and Liz consult before the event.
Liz and Andre take Q and A from the pulpit.
The last event I attended before the finale was Chris Humphreys doing his Shakespeare one man show at the Firehouse in celebration of Shakespeare's 400th anniversary. He was terrific.
And here we are - Vicki and I - closing out the festival with a tribute to the Port's favorite teacher (and my neighbor) Debbie Szabo. It all goes so fast once the weekend gets started. Hard to believe we spend 9 months planning it and barely 36 hours living it. The word on the street is that this was the best year yet. I loved it because I was able to relax and enjoy it more with my friends. If it lures them all here every year I guess I'll keep planning it!
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