Festival Of Words Moving On-line And Free

By Robert Thomas

When life gives you lemons you may as well make lemonade the old cliche goes and for the Saskatchewan Festival of Words it is highly applicable for its 2020 edition.

With the COVID - 19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of numerous events in Moose Jaw the festival has decided to proceed with this year's edition with a couple of major twists.

First of it will be entirely online and open to available to anyone with an Internet connection. And secondly the 2020 virtual festival will be 100 percent free.

“It gives us other opportunities,” says Sarah Siminson executive director for the Saskatchewan Festival of Words. “It still markets Moose Jaw as a destination to hopefully a wider audience…we look at this as an opportunity to reach out to people who are unaware of our festival.”

The decision to go on-line was hard for the festival's board to make and financially it could be a costly one as there are no passes or admission fees being collected this year, she said, adding there is relief in having made the decision.

“It was really a hard decision and with everybody facing the COVID (-19) crisis there was so much going on. From day to day everything changes but the indications are the festival would not be happening this year due to restrictions,” Siminson said. “If we were cancelling and going on-line it would be best to make that decision sooner rather than later…it actually came as a relief to know where things were headed…it’s a lot of weight off of my shoulders.”

The move to going on-line and offering the festival free for anyone who wants to virtually attend comes at a financial cost to the festival as each year between $30,000 to $40,000 is collected through festival passes, event punch cards and single workshop entry fees.

To help absorb some of the losses Siminson said as a registered charity through the Canada Revenue Agency any donation over $20 the festival will send out a tax deductible receipt for. Festival passes and other admission fees are not tax deductible but a donation is.

“Please consider making a donation. Instead of paying your festival pass if you send to us as a donation we can issue you a tax receipt.”

The move to on-line in 2020 does not mean the festival will see major changes to its tried and true format. Efforts are being made to, if possible, include popular events like the literary trivia, poetry slam and musical performance but in a virtual world.

“We are looking at trivia options and if we can have that…we still have bragging rights to the trivia trophy “

At the present time organizers are working with people with the expertise to successfully move from the physical to the virtual world.

“The selection of workshops and authors will look much the same as the in person festival…at the present time we are unsure of the technical costs of going on-line.”

Despite attempts not to disturb the tried and true successful festival format there has already been at least one major change. A change festival organizers see a necessary for a virtual festival.

The Saskatchewan Festival of Words 60 events was originally scheduled to take place July 16 - 19 in Moose Jaw for four days but is now seven days long from July 13 - 19.

“It's the middle of July and nobody is going to want to sit there when it’s nice out and watch all of those events over four days. We felt stretching it out over a week was better…we are aiming at about four events a day.”

Although nothing is set to type already Siminson said they are looking at making the virtual on-line festival accessible to more people. Ideas being floated around include having different times and formats for events to encourage more people to partake.

One idea being floated around is offering more child friendly on-line opportunities geared towards children to assist with their at home learning or offering a noon hour event to allow people to conveniently watch while they eat lunch.

“We are working through scheduling issues right now…but yes this does give us the opportunity to market the festival to new audiences.”

Asked if the festival might have concerns an on-line version might seem stuffy and too academic to draw in a larger as well as new audience Siminson said the festival always works hard to not be overly academic but something everyone can enjoy.

“We are not a super academic festival…we generally don’t invite academic writers as we want to be enjoyed by all.”

Asked the tough question if putting the festival in hiatus for a year could have potentially meant its demise as has been the fate with numerous other Moose Jaw events Siminson said it was unlikely to happen.

“I think our festival would have survived if we would have cancelled for a year. We have such great community support…this is a great opportunity to share the festival on a worldwide stage.”

A full schedule of the events will be available on June 1st. The authors selected so far to present are:

  D. M. Ditson (Non-Fiction)

   Marina Endicott (Fiction)

   Ferah Heron (Romance)

   Jay Ingram (Non-Fiction)

   Amanda Leduc (Non-Fiction)

   Steven Price (Fiction)

  Bruce Rice (Poetry)                                     

   Naben Ruthnum (Mystery)

   Kristine Scarrow (TWE/Young Adult)             

   Paul Seesequasis (Non-Fiction)                      

    Joan Thomas (Fiction)

   Bernadette Wagner (Poetry)                          

   Joshua Whitehead (Fiction)

    Lindsay Wong (Fiction)