National Book Festival Moves to Convention Center

By Maryann Yin 

nbf posterThe organizers behind the National Book Festival will hold this year’s event at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. This move breaks from the festival’s twelve year tradition of using the National Mall as the venue.

This decision was made in part because National Park Service raised concerns about potential pedestrian damage to grass in the National Mall’s expansive lawn. The one-day festival will take place on August 30th.

In an interview with the Washington Post, project manager Jennifer Gavin explained: “We spent months working with the Park Service to see if we could make this work. But when we looked at the costs — and they were considerable — we decided that the festival-goers would be better served by moving it into the convention center…It’s going to allow us to do some things we couldn’t do on the Mall. “