KC Literary Festival Gets Crowds Good Enough to Ensure 2008
The Literary Festival, at Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza yesterday, drew a large crowd exceeding the hopes of the organizers and probably ensuring the festival does indeed recur in 2008.
The KC Star reported an attendance of 13,000 compared with the 10,000 the organizers hoped for to make this newest of Kansas City festivals an annual event.
One of the big successes was Irish author Malachy McCourt who drew a big crowd when he appeared on the main festival stage and then in his conversation thing with Wexford author Larry Kirwan in O’Dowd’s Irish pub.
None of which surprised McCourt, who in a brief interview cited the continued vitality of books and reading as part of the culture despite the encroachment of other media.
At the turn of the 19th century to the 20th, he said, “there was a 70 percent illiteracy and 30 percent literacy rate. It is now the other way around. That’s a terrific improvement — and cause for great hope.”
I think this is great news for Kansas City, for the Irish community in KC, and for all things book related. Well done to the organizers.
Major Confession: I missed everything. My body decided to catch up on sleep I’ve been cheating it out of for the last month causing me to sleep for 17 out of 18 hours from Friday night until Saturday evening. I’m not a happy man. That said I’ve already heard some great reports of the festival - so maybe I’ll share them with you later.
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
Oh, what a shame that you missed it, Eolai. But you have to listen to your body and you would have been a zombie if you dragged yourself. It’s reassuring to see such a turn out for a literary event.