L.A. Times celebrates 30 years of Festival of Books
On April 26 and 27, the annual L.A. Times Festival of Books returned to the University of Southern California (USC) campus. For 30 years, the festival has been considered one of the largest literary events in the country, with an estimate of 160,000 attendees this year, according to the Festival of Books. The event encourages readers of all ages to attend and enjoy the festival's activities, vendors and exhibits.
With a rainy start to kick off the festival weekend, vendors and attendees still showed up regardless. Over 300 exhibitors with uniquely-designed booths carrying all types of book genres, stationary, totes and apparel, was a main highlight of the festival. Many independent bookstores around L.A. County, as well as literature organizations, libraries, publishing companies and small businesses, tabled at the festival.
Bookstores like Tia Chucha’s Centro Cultural & Bookstore, which is co-owned by author Luis J. Rodriguez, have been attending the festival for over 20 years. “Well I love books, and you know this the biggest book festival in the country, and I just love being here, talking to people, and usually they have me at panel and reading, or something is going on and even after that we are usually here with my bookstore that I helped start,” said Rodriguez.
The festival every year invites new authors of all genres to panels, some requiring paid tickets, where guests attend and later get their book signed by the author. The genres range from cooking, sci-fi, non-fiction, fiction, poetry and children’s books. Each year the festival and exhibitors invite a new wave of diverse panelists and books to adapt to their audience.
“It's always different, new audiences, new people, you have young people, kids, and books for kids. I think having books for kids is the most important part of the festival, kids need to have books. So to me, it opens them up that they wanna read. I don't think it’s the end of reading, because people say, because of video and YouTube, and everything … ‘Nobody's reading.’ I don't think so. I think everyone loves to read. So it’s good,” Rodriguez said.
Organizations like the Women’s National Book Association (WNBA) were also in attendance. The organization was established in 1917, before women were given the right to vote through the 19th amendment. WBNA has been attending on and off throughout the 30 years of the festival’s standing, to inspire new members and writers to join their literary community with the ultimate hope of educating and connecting with each other.
“I think our favorite part is interacting with people and you know, talking about the organization, and hearing about how people love books so much. We cater to a lot of writers, so I think it's nice to know that there are so many different people wanting to tell their stories still, and you know in a time of banning books, stories being suppressed, I think events like this is very important,” said Natalie Obando, representative of WNBA’s Los Angeles chapter and former WNBA national president.
“With stories and with storytelling we become human, and we are not another face on TV, or another political statistic, and I think like storytelling is a way to create empathy and festivals like this really help us do that,” said Obando
The Festival of Books creates spaces for attendees to browse the wide selection of books and find entertainment all over USC’s campus.
Food trucks with various cuisines are lined up and scattered throughout campus. Interactive boards ask festivalgoers “What is your current read?” Murals of previous L.A. Times newspaper cover art are displayed in honor of the 30 years, and games such as the L.A. Times Crossword on whiteboards are played by festival volunteers.
“It’s just really fun doing the crosswords and getting people excited to come to the L..A Times Festival of Books and seeing little kids and older people and everyone excited to shout out the answers is always really fun, we like timing it because everyone loves competition,” said Katie Mundy, who has been volunteering at the Festival for two years.
“I heard about (the festival) from my local library when I was a little kid, I use to go to the library every summer, and I saw it again two years ago on Instagram and I was like, OMG, I should go to the L.A. Festival of Books, I'm in L.A.,’” Mundy said.
The festival encourages many book lovers of all ages to enjoy, support and be a part of a literary world and community of book readers.
“People who like books, they find community with each other and it’s just nice to come out and chat with everybody. So I feel good about it being 30 years, and cheers to 30 more,” Mundy said.
Next year’s dates for the L.A. Times Festival of Books are confirmed for the weekend of April 18 through 19, 2026.