Tejas Fest draws 1,000, benefitting from weather, children's activities
Adding more events, 2nd annual event shows big improvements

By KEN ESTEN COOKE
Reporter Publisher

 The 2nd Annual Tejas Art & Book Fair opened its doors to a wide range of activities and benefitted from those and perfect weather, organizers said.
 Attendance at this year’s event was “up significantly,” with one organizer guessing there were close to 1,000 people in town for the event, including acts and exhibitors, artists and entertainers.
 A car show, brought in over 70 exhibitors by itself, surprising organizers.
 “We were really pleased and got a lot of positive comments from the authors,” said Annette Stone, one of the lead organizers who worked at the library. “It was a better time of year, the weather was good and we did more promotion and publicity.”
 Stone said “headliner” Texas Ranger Joaquin Jackson sold 100 books.
 Similarly, artists were pleased with their event as well, said Joan Ratliff, who organized that event.
 “Fifty percent of the artists were new to the show and all but one said they would return,” Ratliff said. “Of course, all wished for more buyers, but there was something for everybody there. There was a lot of beautiful art available for less than $100.”
 Ratliff said the artists loved the setting under the tent in the vacant lot between First Baptist Church and US 79.

Busy businesses
 The event also brought in traffic from the Chamber’s quarterly Market Day sale, which features individual vendors and retailers and usually brings hundreds of bargain hunters into town.
 Antique Queens, a new antique store downtown, reported brisk sales, boosted by crowds who wandered into the new store.
 “It was incredible, it was exactly what we wanted,” said Lana Caldwell, manager with daughter-in-law Zena Caldwell. “We had a full house practically all day. We were writing receipts all day without a break. We got so many good comments.”
 Barnes & Noble Round Rock Store Manager Frank Campbell set up shop in the library, where authors read throughout the day, and reported good sales of books, consisting only of the author’s offerings.
 “We were pleased with the turnout,” Campbell, an Elgin native, said. “It’s great that a town this size has an event like this.” He has requested to come back in 2009.
 Food vendors who had set up all reportedly sold out as well, organizers said.

All ages
 And the weather was cooperative, with rain and a cold front holding off until Monday morning. While starting off cloudy, the sun came out and temperatures warmed up into the 70s, perfect for browsing.
 “It was a wonderful event all the way around,” Denice Doss said.
 This year’s event was unique because of a focus on children, with several children’s authors and entertainers Darren Peterson, Rooster Morris and Austinite Sara Hickman, who put on a rousing show to close the events.
 Hickman, who marked her 45th birthday on Saturday, said she enjoyed the small-town event.
 “I’ve never played in Rockdale, but I hope to come back,” she said to a room full of exhausted children and their parents.
 A better children’s turnout resulted from the committee working with the schools, soliciting volunteers, getting teachers to read to young children upstairs and having Elementary Principal Pam Kaufmann actively involved.
 “Part of our conflict last year was a lot of school sports, but this year we had a lot more kids come through,” Ratliff said.
 Ratliff also praised Rotary Club volunteers and others for helping artists and authors load up and tear down.
 And authors, most of whom hailed from larger towns, praised organizers for putting on a literary event in small-town Texas.
 “I congratulate you for putting an event like this together,” said Tony Diaz, Houston Community College professor and host of “Nuestra Palabra,” a nationally syndicated radio show about Latino litarature. “It is wonderful that you are a champion of reading and writing.”
 Author Bill Holman, who spent years in an orphanage before rising in his career to become library director at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, was also complimentary.
 “You have no idea how nice an event this is for a small town. This is a great event, even for a town 10 times Rockdale’s size,” Holman said.

ken@rockdalereporter.com

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