5 Years of The Louisville Book Festival

We’ve all heard the “anything worth doing” adages:

Anything worth doing is worth doing well.

Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly. 

Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly until you learn to do it well. 

The Louisville Book Festival, which celebrates its 5th year on October 18-19, 2024, is something that I truly believe is worth doing, despite all the setbacks that we’ve faced along the way. 

When I first began dreaming of the festival, COVID happened and took it all online for 2020 and 2021.

While we were thrilled to have the event in person in 2022, it meant we had to learn to do a lot of things differently. Staging a festival online is a very different logistical beast than staging one in “real life”.

It meant learning from our errors, testing organizational systems and gaining feedback from stakeholders. In fact, we are still doing that. Each year, we continue to learn, grow and try new things. 

This year, for the book festival’s 5th anniversary, we are trying out several new things.

For the first time ever, we will have:

• Vendors selling book related crafts and projects
• A Books for All Ball after the book festival with a DJ, pizza buffet and a costume contest with the chance to win a $100 gift card from Carmichael’s Bookstore. (Thank you Carmichaels for helping us celebrate 5 years!)
• More than 150 authors and presenters coming from near and far.

Our goal is to make the book festival something attendees want to return to each year.

To do that , we have to learn just as much from our successes as we do from our mistakes so that we can keep improving and bringing the joy of literacy to the Louisville community and beyond. 

Small But Mighty

People are often surprised to learn that the book festival is put together mainly by a team of two and a lot of dedicated volunteers. We have never had “everything we needed” to pull the festival off but we have always found a way to make it work.

I often admit that if I knew just how much work the festival would be, I might have never done it. However, once I saw the deep need that it met in the community, I knew I had to keep going, no matter what.

Even through tight budgets, unexpected changes, and disappointments, we have made a way for the Louisville Book Festival for five years in a row.

I tell you that because we often convince ourselves that our dreams are too big, too much, too hard. And they might be. But you will never truly know until you try.

I know the Louisville Book Festival is much bigger than my team and I. I’ve also learned that big dreams bring people together and that is how they come to life.

You Can Support the Louisville Book Festival

If you’re a book lover like us, we could always use your support to continue making the book festivals a success.

To support the Louisville Book Festival, you could:

• Share Louisville Book Festival posts on social media.
• Tell friends and family (or students if you are an educator) about it.
• Volunteer your time, even in small ways, to help make the festival happen. 
• Come to the Louisville Book Festival and support the authors and vendors who attend. 
• Make a tax-deductible donation to help us cover the costs associated with the Louisville Book Festival. 
• Come to the Books for All Ball.
• Apply to be an author or vendor in 2025.

We can’t wait to celebrate 5 years with you at the Louisville Book Festival on October 18th and 19th from 10am-5pm and at the Books For All Ball on October 19th at 7pm. Here’s to big dreams and making a way!