By Jon Roe
There’s something special about reaching double-digits. Wheter it’s your 10th birthday, a 10th anniversary or the 10th time you’ve been in a drunk-tank, the event is always unforgettable. The same can be said for the Banff-Calgary International Writers Festival, WordFest, celebrating its 10th year with 2005’s edition. It promises to be a memorable occasion.
“Every year is a special year for the festival,” says Anne Green, who produced the first festival and is the coordinator this year. “This year we will have some of the writers who were at the first festival, such as Margaret Atwood, Lorna Crozier, and Sheri-D Wilson. Since it’s Alberta’s centennial, we’re doing a lot of things that really focus on Alberta writers.”
Debuting in October 1996, Wordfest was started in by four organizations, the Banff Centre, the Writers Guild of Alberta, Mount Royal College, and the Calgary Public Library. The festival has been a staple on the Calgary festival scene since its inception. Despite our culture’s present focus on strong visual or aural stimulants in our entertainment, WordFest has continued to thrive. Audiences have constantly grown, now over 10,000 people visit the festival every year.
“As technology becomes more and more a part of everyday life, we seem to lose the ability to communicate; look at the way people use e-mail, it’s very abbreviated,” explains Green. “WordFest gives people a very simple point of entry into reading. Audiences have opportunities to interact with the writers. This is a huge boost to make people more aware and interested in the work that they do.”
With such a high number of people visiting the festival every year, one might wonder if the authors are letting it get to their heads. According to Green, they have yet to reach rock-star levels, where requests for water at exactly two degrees below room temperature and bowls of MMs with all the brown ones removed are common place.
“I don’t think the authors are into that yet,” she says. “We do everything we possibly can to take really good care of writers, to make sure everything they need is there, and they feel comfortable and that they are enjoying themselves.”
In addition to featuring internationally acclaimed artists, the festival strives to promote local artists as well. The festival showcases Calgary residents Will Ferguson, author of Why I Hate Canadians, and Bruce Kirkby, who chronicled his journey across the South Arabian desert–only the second known travers of the desert– in Sand Dance. Both have new books they are promoting at this year’s festival.
“It gives them the opportunity to appear with national and international peers,” comments Green. “We are a little casual about the people around us. A festival like this puts it into perspective; local writers are just as important as international ones.”
Wordfest promises a lot of festivities going on around the city with enough variety to please anyone. stories of war-torn Afghanistan, informative looks at the San Andreas Fault and talks about the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team’s gold medal at the Salt Lake City Olympics are all part of this eclectic festival’s 10th anniversary. With a star-studded line-up don’t be surprised if Wordfest is around to celebrate many more.