Festival Series: MOTIVE Crime Festival
I thought I would start a new series about the various festivals and conferences I have either presented at, or attended, to give insight into what happens at these various events. I’ve been surprised at how varied these events are, with some being more casual and relaxed affairs, while others have big productions and established organizing teams.
Crime writing in June
The MOTIVE Crime and Mystery Festival takes place in Toronto, Canada each year in June at the Harbourfront. I participated in 2023 as member of the Crime Writer’s of Canada who had a booth setup, as wells as a reading slot on the main stage. I was also invited to pitch my novel during the ‘pitch perfect’ event at one of the venues.
The festival is connected to the larger fall book festival in Toronto, however, it lacks the same level of audience attendance, including publishers, agents and authors. Overall, the vibe felt less haunting and spooky, and more like summer beach weather with patios and nachos. When I went, the area around the festival was busy with rollerbladers, dog walkers, and friends all going out for beers. Within the festival, the spaces were sparse, poorly attended, and lacked cohesion. The main stage had very few onlookers, and the pitch event had almost no one in attendance.
Contrasted with Bloody Scotland – the atmosphere could not be more different.
What makes a great book festival
The redeeming factor here was meeting several crime writers, as well a Scottish writer who had recently moved to Grande Prairie. However, it really got me thinking about what made a great book festival. The first thing I noticed was the absence of food and alcohol on site. Maybe this was a budget thing, but crime writers (broadly speaking) like a tipple or two, and pubs or beer tents give audiences the opportunity to meet writers more casually, outside of the standard book signing table – an arguably bizarre way to interact with someone.
Weather is also a factor here. The bright summer heat was nice, but added nothing to the dark, haunted, and chilling atmosphere of most of the books. These novels are about murder, intrigue, back-stabbing, and affairs. It’s hard to get into the mystery mood when there’s dudes rollerblading with their shirts off, and food trucks pumping out salsa music nearby.
Speaking into the void
On a positive note, the cost to attend this festival is pretty cheap and it is certainly setup to handle hundreds of attendees. The only problem was – there were maybe dozens of attendees instead. So, rather than a bustling and busy book festival, it was cavernous and empty feeling. Being fortunate to have so much space in this instance was a downside. But as a presenter, I felt like I was reading into nothingness, and presenting my work to no one. That’s a tall order considering the cost to fly and stay in Toronto. My friend from Grande Prairie partnered his appearance with meetings with his publishers, and other writer’s I met planned to reconsider attendance next year.
The Crime Writer’s of Canada had all the best intentions, and went out of their way to make the event useful for writers, but I only sold one book and that’s a long way to travel for it.
You don’t know until you go
For writers, conferences and festivals are the sort of experiences where “you don’t know until you go” – especially as an emerging writer. I was fortunate in that I used to live in Toronto, and memory kicked in enough to navigate me to the Harbourfront pretty easily, even though there’s about 200 new glass condos dotting the area. It was good to experience the event first-hand, but it also made me appreciate all of the hard work that goes into Calgary’s book festival WordFest and the incredible job our local team does. In my mind, Calgary punches above it’s weight as far as literary events go. And even though Bloody Scotland is wildly unique and difficult to replicate, Toronto seems to suffer from the mindset of “build it and they will come” which was proven foolish the minute I showed up – because nobody did.
