Two days ago, on Sunday, April 23rd, I spent the day representing the Maryland Writers Association at the Kensington Day of the Book Festival, a street party with live music, food trucks, live readings and plays, and several blocks of Kensington’s most downtown-ish street closed to traffic and lined with booths devoted to books and all the things related to books. (“Downtown-ish” because Kensington, although it’s deeply embedded in the Washington DC metropolitan area, is still a small town with a very small-town feel.) The Festival is associated with the annual UNESCO International Day of the Book, and patterned after a similar festival in Barcelona.
The weather was cool and beautiful. The streets were filled with people until the very end, when a short, light drizzle thinned the crowd a little. Even then the bibliophiles were not entirely dissuaded from their browsing among the authors and editors and bookbinders and rare book evaluators.
I had a great time and sold a few books. If you live in the area or are visiting the area on the 4rth Sunday in April next year, I recommend it. I’ll probably be at the MWA booth again.
