For its 26th year, Word on the Street Toronto—Canada’s largest free book and magazine festival—moved to a new venue at the Harbourfront Centre, next to Lake Ontario.
The festival, which started on Queen Street in downtown Toronto in 1990 and moved to Queen’s Park in 2004, attracted an estimated 225,000 book lovers last year. Authors and publishers who attended this year's all-day event Sunday seemed happy with the venue change, despite some difficulties with signage and booth placement.
Along with the usual stages and more than 200 author events, one new initiative the lakeside venue made possible was the 60-minute author cruises. Throughout the day, book lovers were able to join authors aboard a ship called the Kajama (C$25 for adults, C$10 for kids) for readings and Q&As.
Festival director Heather Kanabe said she thinks the event is easier to navigate now that booths and stages are closer together. “The site has a lot more proximity, so for our exhibitors, it’s easier for people to get to everything, versus having people have to make the long walk around Queen’s Park Circle.”
Kanabe also pointed out that the new venue, a short streetcar ride or a 12-minute walk from Union Station, is easily accessible to out-of-towners. It also offers some indoor venues, which gives exhibitors who snag those spots the added bonus of Wi-Fi availability and protection from potential rain.
Evan Munday, author of the middle-grade series The Dead Kid Detective Agency, appreciated aspects of the new venue, noting that the arrangement of the tents and stages "kind of forced people to wander and discover new areas and publishers they might not have otherwise." But Munday added that some of the venues were difficult to find, especially those indoors and furthest to the west, such as the Children’s Activity Tent in the Purina PawsWay centre, where he hosted a cartooning workshop.
Senior publicist at ECW Press, Sarah Dunn, who confirmed the publisher's sales at the show were up 50% over last year, said the more condensed nature of the tent setup made for “a much for festive and busy experience.” She also appreciated the mix of indoor and outdoor spaces. “The only thing I found a bit problematic was on the programming side, where the sales tents were often far away from the stages and authors weren’t escorted over quickly enough, leaving the opportunity for interested audience members to disappear.”
Monica Charney, promotion manager at children's book publisher Annick Press, has been working Word on the Street since the festival’s first year. Although Annick's sales at this year's show were down by a third, she still appreciated the new location.
“I think we drew in a lot of people that normally didn’t come to Word on the Street," she said, adding that Harbourfront is both a destination for tourists and locals. She then noted: "I think this spot has potential to grow.”
