Happy Festival Week! To prepare for this year’s festival, we want to share some important reminders.
The Festival site
We refer to the entire Rockwood Centre as the Festival site. Everything is located in the park: the Festival Pavilion, our box office, the beverage booths, the Book Tent, washrooms, and Rockwood Lodge, where Special Events A, B and C take place. You can find a site map on our website.
Accessibility
Do you need accessibility seating or have accessibility requirements? Please call the office at 604-885-9631 or email su**********@*************al.ca before your event so we can help prepare for your visit. We also offer attendant tickets (while supplies last).
Talewind Books
Talewind Books is our wonderful Festival Bookseller and they will have the most amazing pop-up book shop located in the Tent above the Pavilion (see our site map). This is where you will find books by all the Festival authors, and where you can get them signed after each event. We are very grateful to Talewind owner Courtney Lamb and her hardworking and skilled team of booksellers.
Food options
We’ll have some light snacks (i.e. think chips, nuts and chocolate bars) for sale at the Festival’s Beverage Booth, but don’t forget you are welcome to bring food from home. If you want to wander off-site, the Sechelt Farmers and Artisans Market features a variety of food vendors on Saturday morning and afternoon (9:00 am – 2:00 pm), and the nearby Hackett Park Artisan Fair is taking place August 15-16. There are also some great eating establishments in Sechelt’s downtown, just a short walk away.
Drink Concession
Strait Coffee will be on site, selling coffee and tea. This wonderful company is locally owned and operated and roasts their coffee right here on the Sunshine Coast! You can stop by their storefront (4330 Sunshine Coast Hwy) to pick up some delicious food and snacks to eat while you’re at the Festival.
The Festival’s beverage booth will feature an assortment of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks as well as light snacks. The beverage booth accepts payment by credit and debit cards as well as cash. Free drinking water is also available here.
A zero-waste Festival
Our goal of zero-waste is now easier to reach, thanks to a partnership with Salish Soils and AjM Disposal. This project will see blue-bin service from AjM Disposal and help from the staff at Salish Soils who will take away sorted and labelled recycling after the Festival. Please assist Recycling Coordinator Uli Hadeler and our dedicated recycling volunteers by being mindful about how you sort your plastic, paper and food waste at one of our clearly marked recycling stations. You can also help reduce waste by bringing your own water bottles and coffee cups from home. You can refill your water bottles in the washrooms or from the water jugs kept at the Beverage Booth.
Contests and raffles
Try out our custom crossword puzzle, test your editing skills, or participate in our Rockwood Gardens hunt. Our popular contests are back and they are completely free to enter. The contest board will be set up at the Information Booth and you will find buckets for completed contest entries located throughout the site. Check the contest board for deadlines to submit your completed contest forms to win some great prizes. A big thank you to our volunteer contest committee, especially Maureen McBeath, Catherine Calder and Laura Davis, for creating such fun puzzles and quizzes.
During the Festival, please consider buying a raffle ticket to support the Festival of the Written Arts… and you could win a luxurious two-night stay in a signature tenthouse at Rockwater Secret Cove Resort or a Festival Pass for 2027. Friendly volunteers will be selling raffle tickets throughout the weekend, or you can drop by the information booth or the festival box office where you can also purchase raffle tickets. The draw for the raffle will be held in the Pavilion on Sunday, August 16, at 4:30 pm. You do not have to be present to win.
Real-time captioning will be available in the pavilion for Events #1-18 thanks to the wizardry and skill of Michael Gurney.
Federation of BC Writers
Bryan Mortensen, Executive Director of the Federation of BC Writers (FBCW), is attending the Festival and would be happy to talk to anyone who wants to learn about the organization. At the Federation you can connect with other writers, hone your skills, showcase your work, and get support on your journey toward publication. The FBCW is also a sponsor of Special Event B, the Dialogue Workshop with Sam Wiebe. You can find Bryan in the Book Tent during Festival weekend.
Check the weather forecast
We never thought we would say this as we approach the eve of our Festival, but we are now hoping for rain (no lightning) and cool weather, anything that will help quell BC’s raging wildfires. Our thoughts are with the thousands of people who have had to evacuate or have lost their homes. On the Sunshine Coast, please be prepared for the weather, whatever it may be. Even if it’s warm during the day, our Pavilion stays cool and it can be chilly in the evenings. We recommend that you bring a sweater or jacket, just in case.
Join us for Coffee Hour
Enjoy complimentary coffee and tea and live music from The Soporifics (Ken Dalgleish and Boyd Norman) while you share stories, talk books and mingle with other festival goers. No registration is required.
Location: Beside the Book Tent | Date: Sunday, August 16, 12:30 – 1:30 pm | Cost: Free
Parking on Saturday, August 15
A final reminder that parking in downtown Sechelt will be very hard to find on Saturday, August 15 due to the Sechelt Farmers’ and Artisans’ Market, which will be set up on Cowrie Street from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm. If you are able, we recommend taking public transit or car pooling. If you do decide to drive that day, please leave yourself lots of time to arrive at the Festival. There will be drop-off/pick-up access in front of Rockwood Centre as well as a few parking spaces for those who need accessible parking. Shorncliffe Avenue will be open, but there will be lots of pedestrians to look out for and traffic will be congested. Overflow parking can be found near Chatelech Secondary.
Latecomers
Although the Festival has a wonderful, casual feel to it, our events almost always start right on time, thanks to our production team’s efficiency. Latecomers can be disruptive to both the presenter and the audience once the event gets underway. Sometimes arriving late is unavoidable, but please try to arrive at the Pavilion at least 5-15 minutes before your show starts.