The “Longmire” session at the Tucson Festival of Books will be among 50 presentations that allow festivalgoers to reserve free tickets online.
One of the book fest’s most popular authors, Craig Johnson writes the Walt Longmire mystery series. He will be joined by “Longmire” TV show cast members Lou Diamond Phillips and Robert Taylor at 11:30 a.m. March 15 in the Student Union South Ballroom.
Online free ticketing will be available for events in the ballroom and in the Student Union Gallagher Theater, Koffler Room 204, Integrated Learning Center Room 120 and Modern Languages Room 350.
Online ticketing is Thursday-Saturday, for Friends of the Festival at the $125 level and above. Ticketing opens to the public this Sunday. Online reservations close at noon March 13.
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There will be seats set aside on a first-come, first-served basis at the venues, says Rob Wisner, the Star’s director of digital innovation and a member of the festival’s long lines committee.
Online ticketing is an effort to ease the long lines for some of the more popular authors, Wisner explains.
All other venues will seat festivalgoers on a first-come, first-seated basis, as in previous years. All of the presentations are free.
The online ticketing does not include Noam Chomsky’s session at 4 p.m. March 15 in Centennial Hall. Chomsky tickets must be picked up in person at the Centennial Hall Box Office, 1020 E. University Blvd., after it opens at noon March 15.
Adding to the depth of the “Longmire,” session is the moderator, former Tucson resident CB McKenzie, whose book, “Bad Country” won the 2013 Tony Hillerman Prize for best first mystery set in the Southwest.
Author Johnson writes character-centric, modern Western thrillers with Walt Longmire as the cowboy-hat-wearing protagonist who is the sheriff “in the least populated county in the least populated state,” Wyoming’s fictional Absaroka County.
Taylor stars as Longmire in the TV series, and Phillips has the role of Henry Standing Bear. The series is set to start its fourth season for Netflix at the end of March.
