Word on the Street Festival returns to Lethbridge

The Word on the Street Festival returns to Lethbridge for its 8^th consecutive year to celebrate the written and spoken word.

Noorin Chatur-Muhammad
Kicker

People braved the cold to celebrate their love of literacy at the Lethbridge Public Library last Saturday.

Now in its eighth year, the Word on the Street Festival is the biggest literary event in Southern Alberta.

“(The festival) celebrates not only the written and spoken word but our own homegrown Canadian authors and illustrators,” said Elisabeth Hegerat, manager of community and economic advancement at Lethbridge Public Library.

“It’s a great opportunity first of all for people to learn more about an author or book series that either they may not have known about, to meet their next great read, or meet someone who’s work they already enjoy,” said Hagerat.

This year, the event brought in 27 authors hailing from Halifax to Vancouver.

“Its wonderful for me to connect with some readers that like my work and also introduce my work to new readers,” said children’s author Kallie George. “There were some young children here who had all of my books and they were so excited to meet me, and that’s such a pleasure.”

Family fun

In addition to engaging with an all-star list of Canadian authors, festival goers had the opportunity to participate in panel discussions, demonstrations and workshops.

The festival aimed activities at various ages including appearances by Clifford the Big Red Dog and Dog Man, teen writing contests, and kid and adult scavenger hunts.

“My kids are so excited for the scavenger hunt,” said festival goer Shawn Sandhu. “They’ve been asking me to do it with them all day.”

This year for the first time, the Lethbridge Public Library has taken steps to improve accessibility.

“Two of our main author stages are going to have live event closed captioning, and there will be ASL, American Sign Language, interpreters for some of the events happening today,” said Hagerat.

The free festival happens each September in Halifax, Saskatoon, Toronto and Lethbridge.