Free Saturday: Accessible programming at the Vancouver Writers Fest

The Vancouver Writers Fest has been organizing a successful, annual literary festival in Vancouver since 1988. Over the years it has grown into a cultural cornerstone of Vancouver, bringing local, Canadian, and international authors and thought leaders to stages for intimate interviews, panel discussions, and literary performances. In 2018, as part of its mission to encourage reading, writing, and access to ideas, the Fest introduced a new initiative and removed admission costs to all events on one day of programming. This initiative, called Free Saturday, made 12 events free of charge in an effort to make the Festival inviting to more people than ever before. This report chronicles the implementation of Free Saturday and analyzes its impact through accumulated data from ticket sales and audience feedback forms. To conclude, this report suggests ways forward to better maximize Free Saturday’s impact in future years.