Volunteer

The Texas Book Festival holds a large amount of author sessions in tents set up along Congress and 11th street in front of the State Capitol. Duties in these tents can include:

• Assist with crowd hospitality and attendee wayfinding
• Maintain traffic flow in and out of the tent and for book signings
• Assist speakers and panelists
• Assist with set-up for presentations

Help run our event spaces! These volunteer opportunities are centered around festival events outside of traditional programming. These roles are vital to festival function, whether your assisting after hours with late night programs, or helping set up signs before the festival begins. Duties in these jobs may include

• Help tear down and clean up after the festival has ended
• Helping maintain our author greenroom
• Escorting authors around festival grounds
• Taking session counts after hours at Lit Crawl
• Checking people in at TBF parties
• Help set up signage around the Capitol the day before the festival

In addition to programming, TBF has multiple opportunities for shopping over the course of the weekend. Attendees can purchase featured author books in the BookPeople sales tents, or check out vendors in the exhibitor marketplace. After each author session, signings will take place in either the main, or children’s, book signing tents. Dutities for volunteers in these venues may include

• Help maintain traffic flow, establishing lines for author signings
• Greet attendees as they enter the sales or signing tents
• Help attendees find the book(s) they are looking for, if you can monitor traffic flow and monitor exits for loss prevention
• Prepare author signing areas
• Assist with the unpacking of books on Friday night and repacking of books on Sunday night
• Help prepare books to be signed/inscribed as directed by VCC

Help volunteer in our Children’s and Young Adult tents! These tents will host programming for children, middle grade students, and young adults, and our Camp TTBF and Children’s activity tents will hold activities for teens and kids. Duties for volunteers in these tents may include:

• Assist with setup and teardown of table materials, chairs, and signage
• Assist with quieting the crowd
• Greet authors/illustrators/other presenters
• Help transition from one session to the next
• Escort authors to other areas of the Festival
• Monitor children in attendance
• Help programming partners lead activities
• Straightening chairs and carpet squares in the tent between authors

Outside of our tents, the Texas Book Festival holds author sessions in several venues around downtown Austin. These venues tend to be larger in size and often have larger crowds. Duties in these tents can include:

• Assist with crowd hospitality and attendee wayfinding
• Maintain traffic flow in and out of the tent and for book signings
• Assist speakers and panelists
• Assist with set-up for presentations
• Helping visitors locate restrooms and trash cans
• Helping clean up between sessions and at end of the day
• Assisting Festival Friends Pass holders with seating
• Assisting with checking in attendees during ticketed sessions