OAKLAND — It was a typical Oakland event — fun music, great food and long lines snaking out the door, with people waiting to hear … philosophy?

“The lines were huge,” said Kira Brunner Don, co-founder of the Oakland Book Festival. “Every room was full — packed to capacity and beyond.”

That was the scene at last year’s successful — and first — Oakland Book Festival. And the organizers expect the same thing this year at the free event, to be held Sunday at City Hall.

“It was truly a representation of Oakland, which was something that meant a lot,” said Kira Brunner Don, who cofounded the festival with her husband, Timothy Don.

At this year’s festival, which promises 60 events with 200 authors in seven hours, the main draws are the panels and discussions, which bring together Oakland authors as well as prominent visitors like Dave Eggers and Pico Iyer. Panels will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in various rooms in City Hall, many concurrently, while there are also readings, booksellers, children’s crafts and other activities outside the building.

The general theme is “labor,” a theme that touches on topics as diverse as the sex trade, slavery or household chores.

“We want to cover ideas that really tap into the ground of Oakland itself, that have a contemporary, local urgency to them,” Timothy Don said.

That means bringing together novelists, poets, academics and activists in discussions framed to ensure there will be a debate among the panelists.

“They have to speak to each other, they can’t speak in the jargon of their professions,” Kira Brunner Don said.

One example is the panel on extreme altruism, which will take as a starting point New Yorker writer Larissa MacFarquhar’s recent book.

But instead of a reading or a lecture, MacFarquhar will be joined by three other writers, including historian Mary Doyno, an Oakland resident. Doyno, who is writing a book on saintly behavior in medieval Italy, is looking forward to not only exploring the subject of altruism with her fellow panelists, but also having a wider conversation with the audience as well, which will be invited to join in.

“That Oakland as a community can have conversations about complicated, complex deep issues is fabulous,” Doyno said.

That’s part of what the organizers are hoping people get out of the festival.

“It’s exciting,” Timothy Don said. “Your mind gets turned on.”

And it’s an easy thing to do in the Bay Area, with the density of authors, thinkers and speakers — like rock critic and music journalist Greil Marcus, an Oakland resident, who will join Berkeley author Cecil Brown to take on the topic of labor through work songs — starting with “John Henry.”

“I want to talk about songs of betrayal,” he said.

But there are also plenty of authors making the trip to Oakland just to be part of the festival.

“The Oakland bookrest has quickly gained the reputation as one of the best festivals in the country highlighting cutting-edge, progressive writing and spotlighting minority talent,” Hisham Aidi wrote in an email from Morocco.

Aidi, the New York-based author of “Rebel Music: Race, Empire and the New Muslim Youth Culture” is coming to the festival to talk about the legacy of Malcolm X.

“The event reflects and draws on the Bay Area’s deep cultural and political past,” he said.

And after the success of last year’s inaugural festival, which saw around 5,000 people visit the one-day event, the organizers knew they had a success.

“A lot of people said to us, ‘This is the first time I’ve been to City Hall,’ ” Timothy Don said.

Besides the discussions held inside, the festival also has a vibrant outdoor presence. In a new move, there will be what the festival is calling a “marathon reading,” with more than 100 authors reading for three minutes each for more than seven hours.

In addition, it boasts a solid list of children’s programming, including performances from Children’s Fairyland, writing activities hosted by Chapter 510 & the Department of Make Believe, stories read by Oakland librarians and bookmaking projects from the Museum of Children’s Arts. All of this is complemented by booksellers, food trucks and live music.

Organizing this takes a lot of time — and money. The festival, a nonprofit, has more than 100 volunteers, and supporters have been contributing through an Indiegogo funding campaign, which is trying to raise $25,000 to help with costs.

Ticket sales to hot events might help, but that would go against the festival’s principles. “We’re really committed to making it for everyone,” Timothy Don said.