Lethbridge Public Library. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge’s Word on the Street festival moving off the street

Jul 13, 2020 | 10:52 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – In the age of the e-book, even the events celebrating literacy are taking place online.

Out of concerns of COVID-19 and public health restrictions, the Lethbridge Public Library has announced some changes to the Word on the Street festival.

Event Organizer Elisabeth Hegerat says she expects these measures to still be in place by September, but even if they are lifted prior to that, some residents might feel hesitant about attending a large, outdoor gathering.

“Instead of being an outdoor event, we are moving online.”

By doing it this way, it allows them to spread out their activities over several weeks instead of a single day or weekend.

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Some of the finer details are still being worked out, but Hegerat believes there will be something for everyone.

“We will, as always, have a great lineup of children’s, adult, and teen authors for everyone, we’re looking forward to still being able to offer book sales with our partners from the University of Lethbridge Bookstore, there will be some workshops and panel discussions, we are hoping to still do some activities with comics artists as well, and we are planning on having some great speakers lined up from our local Indigenous communities.”

Planned festival activities include:

• September 14:
  • Streamed workshops/panels
  • The launch of online self-guided activities like an online escape room and teen writing contest
• September 18-19:
  • The “Core Festival” activities including programming with children’s, teen, and adult authors
• The week of September 21:
  • Local Indigenous programming
• October and November:
  • An author reading series
• Throughout the festival:
  • Online book ordering through the University of Lethbridge Bookstore

More details are expected to be announced later this summer.