With each passing year, one local festival has been putting in the grunt work to make sure it's out doing the last year. 

The Festival of Words celebrated the launch of the 2019 edition of the event Wednesday afternoon at the Cultural Centre and with the list of authors and performers, this may just be the best year yet. 

Back when the Festival was just starting to gain steam and find its footing, organizers were tasked with seeking out talented authours and presenting them with an opportunity to come and be apart of the event. That way of thinking is no more according to Executive Director Sarah Simison, who said in most cases local, provincial and nationally acclaimed writers are contacting their organization asking if there's a way to make the list of presenters. 

"I would say in the beginning we reached out to people and now we've really developed a strong reputation provincially and nationally so we have authours from all over contacting us and saying 'how do I get an invitation, how do I get there?' It's really exciting," said Simison.

One familiar face who will be making their debut performance at this year's Festival of Words is Burton Cummings. He is most well known as a recording artist, however, Simison said recently discovered the singer is also very talented when it comes to the literature aspect of music making as well. 

"I didn't even know until I saw his book of poetry and was gifted a book of poetry by him. It was really exciting and it's fun to be able to include him in the program," explained Simison. "I think we have a lot of young poets who are participating in the slam (poetry session) and to have someone as well established as an artist as him... would set a great mentorship example to the young people participating as well."

It's not easier than ever to get a ticket or full event pass to the Festival of Words thanks to a partnership that came to fruition last year with the Festival and one of the venues. 

"We started using the Cultural Centre box office last year, they've got the software that we didn't have. They've taken on that job for us which is a really nice partnership they've been really great to work with. It's really slick, you can buy your tickets or passes online or through the box office. Tickets are also available on site during the festival if you just want to go to one reading or one event you can just come in the door and buy a ticket."

Anyone interested in buying a ticket can simply head to the Cultural Centre website and search over a dozen options. 

For more information on the 2019 Festival of words that will take over Moose Jaw on July 18th to 21st, click here.