Meeting virtually June 4 on a board motion which recommended dissolving the organization, the membership with Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival has decided against going that route.
Board chair Kyla Heyming said that during a discussion lasting more than two hours, the membership vocalized the importance of keeping the festival going.
“The membership voted against the recommendation to the board, to essentially not dissolve the festival and keep it going,” she said. “Honestly, I'm thrilled to hear that. This festival is special to me.”
Facing dwindling funding and forced to lay off the literary festival’s founder and director, Heather Campbell, the board felt “we had done as much as we could for the festival,” and decided to bring the question to the membership, Heyming said.
“We were able to kind of explain to everyone what was happening, kind of where we had reached our limit,” she said
The organization will now need to be restructured due to the current reality, she said.
“We will be meeting in the coming weeks to discuss further the future of the festival this year,” Heyming said. “People can expect essentially a rethinking and a restructuring of both the structure and also the governance as well.”
Some of the festival’s membership will be stepping up to take on new roles. “We'll be able to essentially split up the tasks to keep things going and moving forward,” Heyming said.
Whether or not Wordstock will still be able to pull off the 2025 festival, which was to take place in November, is still up in the air.
If they do, it might not be in the previous format of a three-day festival, but rather something smaller in scope.
As for herself, Heyming will stay on the board in the interim, but will step down in the coming weeks. She said the situation has taken a toll on her, as she had shouldered a lot of work herself.
“I'm happy that both the community and the membership showed up to show their support and to show how important the festival was and is for them,” she said. “They essentially reinforced what we believe. But it's nice to know that people are stepping up to keep something that's good for the community going.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.