Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival recommends members vote to dissolve the organization

The Wordstock Sudbury Literary Festival board is recommending its members vote to dissolve the organization.

Kyla Heyming, Wordstock's board chair, said the festival is not financially viable in its current form.

"Some of the grants we've received in the past have pulled out," Heyming told CBC's Up North.

"We've been getting less money from grants than we usually get and it's just not sustainable anymore."

Heyming said the festival has grown in recent years to provide programming year-round, and has depended on grants from both federal and provincial levels of government.

But a lot of those grants have dried up.

"We're often not getting any feedback back," she said, referring to the different grant agencies.

Last year, Heyming said it cost around $100,000 to put on the festival.

"We've grown and that's what's been fantastic," she said.

But that growth has also come at a cost, with employees needed to run various programs and initiatives.

Heyming said the recommendation to dissolve the festival does not come lightly.

She said the board even hired someone to help find the festival more sponsorship opportunities, but that didn't work out.

"If by, you know, some miracle people really want to volunteer, get involved, if we get a miracle funding or sponsorship that allows us to continue, then we won't have to recommend to dissolve,"Heyming said.

But she added that the current financial reality for the festival, without a last-minute "miracle" means it can't be sustained.

Wordstock's next board meeting is scheduled for next week, at which time members will vote on the recommendation to dissolve the festival.