The event traditionally takes place on the Thursday night at the start of the event and gives festival-goers a chance to check out six artists presenting short excerpts of their work as a preview of the sessions to come through the remainder of the weekend.
“It’s kind of taste of everything at the festival,” explained operations coordinator Amanda Farnel. “We try to get authors who people don’t know too much about and we give them three-minute mini-readings, so you can choose what sessions you want to go during the festival, who you’re interested in. It’s kind of our welcome event.”
Taking part this year were Dr. David Williams (Defying Limits), Tenille Campbell (#IndianLovePoems), Danny Ramadan (The Clothesline Swing), Kristine Scarrow (The Gamer’s Guide to Getting the Girl), Jillian Tamaki (They Say Blue) and Billy-Ray Belcourt (This Wound is a World).
“We bring in authors from all different genres,” Farnel said. “We have a comic book author, an astronaut, poets, anyone who’s interesting and people might like to see.”
Readception also acts as a chance for Festival patrons to simply kick off the weekend in a fun fashion, especially those who are regular participants. Around 200 people filled the Mosaic Place Conference Centre room this time around.
“People love it because our Festival is kind of a destination for people, almost a reunion for some, and this is the first event where people get to chat and mingle and get a taste of the festival before the craziness of tomorrow starts,” Farnel said with a laugh.
Sessions kick off at 9 a.m. on Friday at the Public Library Complex and run all day at the library, Cultural Centre and Cosmo Centre before wrapping with the annual Trivia Night at Bobby’s Place at 5:30 p.m. and a Poetry Slam at 9 p.m. at the Cultural Centre.
