The Background
In 1996, I led the team that launched the Baltimore Book Festival. Inspired by the Edinburgh Book Festival and Mayor Schmoke’s “The City That Reads” campaign, our vision was to create Baltimore’s best bookstore, albeit outdoors and temporal. We had three clear goals:
Connect readers with authors, hosting important, thought-provoking conversations, many ahead of their time.
Celebrate all literary genres– meeting readers where they were with open arms and no judgment, be it comics or cookbooks, politics or poetry.
Generate serious impact for the region’s cultural economy.
The Results
Working with our partners (1996-2019), we curated an incredible roster of rockstars including but not limited to: Jane Goodall, Emeril Lagasse, April Ryan, Ree Drummond, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Buzz Aldrin, Rev Run, Candace Bushnell, Walter Mosley, Senator John McCain, Carla Hall, Martin Yang, Martha Raddatz, Lonnie Bunch, Terry McMillan, Tina Louise, Leland Melvin, Hill Harper, Maureen McCormick, Alan Dershowitz, Jon Krakauer, Kwame Alexander, Tayari Jones, Tim Gunn, Brad Meltzer, John Waters, Issa Rae, Ibram Kendi, Daphne Oz, Norah O’Donnell, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, D. Watkins and Ta-Nehisi Coates.
Hallmark festival features: The Literary Salon, Food for Thought Stage, Children’s Bookstore/Enoch Pratt Free Library Children’s Stage, Self-Published Authors Tent, College & University Row, Music Stage, Antiquarian Book Fair at Peabody Library, Literary Walking Tours of Baltimore, Maryland Romance Writers, CityLit Stage, Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America Stage, Radical Bookfair Pavilion, Inner Harbor Stage at the Baltimore Visitors Center, Handwriting Analysis Tent, The Storybook Parade and The Silent Majority Stage.
Traditionally, we showcased 225+ authors and 100 independent booksellers and exhibitors - serving as the highest-grossing sales weekend for many of the region’s booksellers and publishers and sustaining them throughout the year.
Five Keys to Our Success
Fundraising: raising a $500,00 annual nonprofit budget to keep everything at the festival 100% free and open to the public.
Baltimore City Partnership: The Mayor’s Office provided generous support with in-kind services, fees and equipment – again, ensuring the event remained admission-free and therefore, radically inclusive.
Headline authors were required to present, not just sell-and-sign books and in most cases, take audience q-and-a. We didn’t pay agents or speaking fees, but we had a first-class hospitality program that gave the festival a great reputation on the circuit.
Every few years, our small but mighty team boarded Amtrak and blitzed NYC publishing houses with presentations and deskside meetings.
Great partnerships and a little luck…the Food Network came online at the same time as the festival in the mid-90s, allowing us to book many of their blockbuster personalities when they were still up-and-coming.
The New Chapter
In 2014, historic preservation of the Washington Monument displaced the event from its charming home in a cobblestone district to the bright lights of downtown. The challenge went beyond logistics to include attracting the festival’s loyal audience of authors, exhibitors and attendees to make the move as well. After a considerable learning curve, the story ultimately had a happy ending, with the festival drawing 100,000+ people and generating $9 million in economic impact for Baltimore after relocating to the Inner Harbor.