Kitchener pulls out of national book and magazine fair Word on the Street

The Kitchener-based annual one-day Word on the Street in Kitchener was a relatively modest contributor to the much larger national festival. However, according to a story in the Waterloo Region Record, it now it has been decided to pull out of the national event. The City of Kitchener, which financed it, decided its $20,000 budget would be better spent holding a series of literary-themed events throughout the year in collaboration with the Kitchener Public Library.

The city announced Wednesday it is pulling out of the festival, which it has hosted for 15 years. Instead, it plans to hold ImagineIt, a series of events in partnership with Kitchener Public Library that "will focus on fun and interesting ways to connect the community through engaging events that celebrate reading, writing and literacy," according to the ImagineIt website.

According to the news report, while WOTS was thriving in other cities (Toronto drew 225,000 people in 2014), attendance at the Kitchener festival dwindled over the years, from as many as 7,000 at its peak for as few as 2,000 after it moved from its original location in Victoria Park to the City Hall rotunda and the Kitchener Market.

This is not the first defection from the national book and magazine festival which, since its founding in 1990 as a very successful Toronto event, expanded year by year into such cities at Halifax, Lethbridge and Saskatoon and, until now, Kitchener. The Vancouver Book and Magazine Fair Society, after 12 years as part of WOTS dissociated itself in 2013 from the national organization and rebranded as a 5-day Word Vancouver.

Last year the Toronto Word on the Street was moved from its longtime location in Queen's Park in Toronto to Harbourfront (the original fair had started as a true street fair, occupying several closed blocks of Queen Street.)

Word on the Street festival gives readers opportunity to meet, greet and buy Canadian magazines

Magazines will be meeting their readers at Word on the Street book and magazine fair events this weekend across Canada. All events are free.

Toronto (Sunday, Sept. 21 11am - 6 pm, Queen's Park Circle)
(mostly in the Magazine Mews)

• Alternatives Journal
• Brainspace magazine
• Brick: A literary journal
• Broken Pencil Magazine
• C Magazine
• Canadian Art magazine
• Canadian Dimension
• Canadian Monarchist News
• Carousel
• Cineaction
• Cinema Scope magazine
• Dandyhorse 
• Descant Magaizne
• EcoParent magazine
• Feathertale
• Geist Magazine
• Green Teacher
• Hazlitt Magazine
• Humanist Perpectives
• Kid Scoop News
• Little Brother Magazine
• Ontario Nature
• Owlkids
• People's Voice
• Point of View Magazine
• Pure Green Magazine
• Shameless Magazine
• Sky News Magazine
• Spacing magazine
• Taddle Creek
• The Humber Literary Review
• The Message
• The New Quarterly
• The Walrus Magazine
• This Magazine
• Toronto Life Magazine
• Vallum: Contemporary Poetry
• Voice K Magazine
• Worn Fashion Journal
• Zoomer Magazine

Kitchener (Saturday, September 20 11am - 5pm, Downtown Kitchener City Hall

Halifax (Sunday, September 21, 11am - 5pm, Halifax Waterfront)

Saskatoon (Sunday, September 21, 11am - 5 pm,, Civic Square)

Lethbridge (Sunday, September 21, 11am - 5 pm, Main Library, 5th Ave S. & 8 St. S.

Word on the Street festival spreads the magazine love to six cities this year

This Sunday September 23 from 11 to 6 is the bazaar and meet-n-greet that is Word on the Street, the national book and magazine festival. In Toronto, there are literally hundreds of exhibitors, many of them indy magazines, ranged in booths around Queen's Park. In Halifax, book and magazine publishers will be showing what they make on the waterfront. In Kitchener, the exhibitors are in place  around Kitchener City Hall (having outgrown downtown Victoria Park). In Saskatoon, they're downtown, in Civic Square and around City Hall. In Lethbridge, they're at the Main Library.

(Note:  Vancouver's three-day version takes place Friday 28th through Sunday 30th.)

WOTS, as it's called, started in 1990 in Toronto and has since expanded year by year. Lethbridge and Saskatoon, for instance, started last year.

Many people enjoy the fairs for their lively crowds and events such as author readings and other entertainments. Others find it's a great place to find out about magazines they never heard of and, often, to get a great one-day-only discount on subscriptions. 

To see the range of magazines participating (and these vary widely from one city to the next; not all magazines can manage to staff all cities),  click around the online exhibitors' catalogue for the Toronto WOTS. You'll see familiar magazines large and small there. Here's an arbitrary sampling: Alternatives Journal, Dandyhorse, Descant, This Magazine, Taddle Creek, The Walrus,  Toronto Review of Books, The New Quarterly, The Dance Current, Toronto Life,  NOW magazine, WORN Fashion Journal, The Grid and Zoomer.

Quarter of a million attended Word on the Street events across Canada

Word on the Street, the national magazine and book festival, is reported to have drawn 250,000 people in cities across the country on Sunday, September 26. Toronto's festival, the biggest, was in its 21st year and other cities were Vancouver, Kitchener and Halifax. Saskatoon held a preview event for its first WOTS to occur in 2011.

"The growing success of The Word On The Street festivals across Canada continues to demonstrate our national passion for the written word and advocacy for literacy", noted Ceta Ramkhalawansingh, national board chair, The Word On The Street Canada, in a release. "We expect to expand this national celebration as new cities have expressed their interest in joining The Word On The Street festival".

Word on the Street, where magazines come out to meet the public

In most places in Canada, the end of September has a crisp feel of autumn about it, which is ideal for Word on the Street (though Toronto can sometimes surprise with a heat wave). And this annual celebration of the written word (now in its 18th year) seems to have become an important part of marketing consumer magazines in this country -- both selling subs and single copies and raising brand awareness among the general public.

Visitors can number in the thousands in smaller venues (Kitchener and Halifax) and in the tens of thousands in Vancouver and Toronto. While they're there for books and readings and other events, too, it's a great place for magazine staffers to meet the public, maybe sell or give away those back issues, get those sub cards into eager hands and generally feel good about what they do.

The event is a little different from place to place. Only in Vancouver, for instance, is there a "magazine mews" on Howe Street, where magazine booths are clustered together. Only in Toronto do the big guys, Rogers and Transcontinental, set up shop. In some places it is really on a city street, in others it is in a more parklike setting (Queen's Park in Toronto, Victoria Park in Kitchener). Curiously, there are some major cities where it hasn't taken yet, like Ottawa and Montreal and Winnipeg and Regina, Calgary, St. John's and Saint John.

What's amazing is that even more magazines don't make the effort, taking advantage of the national promotion and aggressively associating themselves with the event. We have heard that some magazines find writers, sell subs and make friends in a way that hard to replicate. There's a modest cost for a booth, but some magazines split this with another title.

Just for interest, here are the magazines and magazine-related organizations and companies that we found were registered as of today (more are likely to come) in the various places across the country.

Halifax (September 23)
Atlantic Magazine Association
Magazines Canada
Saltscapes
The Walrus

Kitchener (September 30)
The New Quarterly
Alternatives Journal
Canadian Humanist
Vida Latina Magazine

Toronto (September 30)
Alternatives Journal
Ascent magazine
Brick, a literary journal
Broken Pencil
Canadian Art
Canadian Geographic
Canadian Newcomer Chart magazine
Chatelaine
cineAction
Descant
Existere
Eye Weekly
Ideas: Arts & Sciences Review
Kiss Machine
Literary Review of Canada
Magazines Canada
Moorshead Magazines*
Musicworks magazine
New Internationalist
NOW magazine
Outpost
Owl & Chickadee
Public
Rogers Publishing
Shameless
SkyNews Spacing
Taddle Creek
The Magazine
The New Quarterly
The Walrus Foundation
This Magazine
Transcontinental Media
What’s Up Kids Family Magazine

Calgary (September 30)
Calgary Inc. Avenue Magazine
The Walrus Foundation
Magazines Canada
Venture Publishing (Alberta Venture, Unlimited)

Vancouver (September 30)
alive magazine
British Columbia Association of Magazine Publishers
British Columbia Magazine
CJC: Canadian Journal of Communications
Dance International
Event
FRONT Magazine
Geist magazine,
Homes & Living Magazine
Humanist Perspectives
Magazines Canada
Pacific Rim Magazine
Ricepaper
Room
subTerrain magazine
Vancouver Review
The Walrus
Watershed Sentinel

*U.S. titles: Family Chronicle, Internet Genealogy, History magazine