This article comes from Publishers Lunch Daily:
After 26 years of free admission, the Miami Book Fair will charge for this year's event, held between November 8 and 15th. Attendees will be asked to pay $8 for admission to the weekend street fair on Saturday and Sunday and $10 for ''Evenings With . . .'' programs that run opening night and through the week. The fair will also discontinue its opening-day festivities, its Street Fair parade and International Pavilions. Kids under 18 will still get in free, and fair-goers over 62 will still pay $5 for the street fair.
Cofounder and chair Mitch Kaplan told the Miami Herald that the loss of corporate sponsorships from Target and downtown developers in tandem with state budget cuts looming for Miami Dade College, where the Book Fair is held, required adding on admission fees. "I would prefer everything to be without charge, but we have to think out of the box on ways to ensure the future of the fair,'' Kaplan said. "We're going to try and streamline what we do a bit...This is an incredibly difficult period. As the landscape shifts in the literary and publishing world we have to think of ways to make sure that this precious thing . . . continues."
FMI: Miami Herald
