After a week full of workshops, panels, interviews, readings, trivia and more, the 24th annual Saskatchewan Festival of Words concluded with a round of thunderous — but still relatively virtual — applause from organizers and audiences alike.
Executive director Sarah Simison is simultaneously relieved and excited about how the festival went this year, especially after reworking the entire iconic event for an online delivery rather than in-person as per usual.
“There was a big cheer in the room when our last session ended, because we not only survived moving the Festival online, [but] everything came together so great,” laughed Simison. “The whole thing was really exciting because we did so much planning leading up to it, and even then you’re not sure how it's going to go, [so] to pull off the events the way did felt really gratifying.”
Audiences tuned in to the live stream events from literally all over the world, with some even saying hello in the chat from places like the U.K., India, the Philippines, France, as well as from all over Canada and the U.S.
“It was so exciting to see people accessing it from all over the world, and to see a lot of comments from people saying “hey, I’ve wanted to come for years but it never works out for me, and now I can be a part of it,’” said Simison. “It’s really exciting to engage with them in this way too.”
Shifting the four-day festival to a week-long virtual format was a daunting task for the organizing team, said Simison, but she felt like the finished result really delivered what Festival patrons love most about the annual beloved event.
Simison shared that some of the most well-attended events this year included the interview between local Saskatchewan TV personality Nelson Bird and author Paul Seesequasis, as well as the workshop on writing from real events with Governor General Award-winning author Joan Thomas and the online live concert from Regina band Andino Suns.
“The final event was really exciting too, because it was very Saskatchewan-centric and I loved that we were kind of bringing the Festival to people who may normally not be here, and they got a flavour of our province and who we are,” said Simison.
Both Simison and the rest of the organizing team felt the technological side of things also went very well, considering this was the first time the Festival has ever put together live stream events in this way.
“A lot of it was like sitting on pins and needles while the event’s happening because you’re [worried but] it all went really smoothly,” said Simison. “A lot of people were happy we were able to find a captioning service, because it made it way more accessible.”
The final panel of the week concluded with the announcement of ten guest authors already lined up for next year’s 25th anniversary Festival of Words, which Simison is already excited about.
Names already on the schedule include Festival favourites like lawyer and writer Harold Johnson, memoirist and broadcaster Jael Richardson, author and botanical expert Lyndon Penner, and former Moose Javian author Angie Abdou, in addition to novelist and nonfiction writer Sharon Butala, author and speaker Farzana Doctor, travel writer Will Ferguson, Griffin Prize-winning poet Silvia Legris, critically acclaimed nonfiction author Linda Spalding, and Saskatchewan heavyweight novelist and short story writer Guy Vanderhaeghe.
“We’ve got some big names already lined up and we’re really excited,” said Simison. “Because it's our 25th Festival, we wanted to have a good mix of Festival favourites that people have loved over the years, and emerging artists and a good Saskatchewan contingent as well.”
Overall, the Festival of Words is marking 2020 down as a rousing success, despite the change in venue, and is already looking ahead to returning to normal for next year’s events — with a plan in place in case a physically distant Festival is required again.
"I especially would love to give like a special thanks to Amanda Farnel, operations coordinator because she really took on like the tech side of things," concluded Simison. "She spent hours and hours and hours just playing around with technology to see how we could convert our festival into a digital festival, and I think her and I make a really good team. This festival couldn't have happened without her, that's for sure.
Stay tuned to the Festival of Words social media pages for more announcements about next year's Festival in the future.
