diff --git a/core/views/expo.py b/core/views/expo.py
index 7bad7f7..d439a9c 100644
--- a/core/views/expo.py
+++ b/core/views/expo.py
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ def expowebpage(request, expowebpath, path):
     except:
         try:
             with open(os.path.normpath(expowebpath / path), "rb") as o:   
-                html = o.read()
+                html = str(o.read())
         except:
             return HttpResponse(default_head +  '<h3>UTF-8 Parsing Failure:<br>Page could not be parsed using UTF-8:<br>failure detected in expowebpage in views.expo.py</h3> Please edit this <var>:expoweb:</var> page to replace dubious umlauts and &pound; symbols with correct HTML entities e.g. <em>&amp;pound;;</em>. </body' )