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In an increasingly digital world, where one can download and read a book on a computer screen without ever setting foot in a library or bookstore, Word on the Street provides the perfect excuse for book lovers to come together.

The annual festival for readers and writers drew thousands to the Vancouver Public Library on Sunday. Everyone from well known British Columbian writers like Evelyn Lau and Ryan Knighton to small publishing houses and first-time novelists rubbed shoulders in the packed tents that lined the bustling plaza. Even a trio dressed as a Storm Trooper, Jawa and Boba Fett, respectively, made an appearance.

“I’ve attended this festival for years, and it just gets better,” said Keith Lim, a technical writer who also pens science fiction. Lim wore a shirt that read “Don’t Panic”, an inside joke for fans of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The apocalyptic comedy was the winner of the One Book, One Vancouver contest in which readers voted for the one book they believed all Vancouver residents should read.

“I think what you see here are a group of people who have always loved reading and writing, and no technology will change that,” Lim said.

The changing shape of book publishing and readership was evident from the large tent advertising the Sony Reader, a touchscreen e-book. Yet flanking either side of the Sony display were tables piled high with the stuff of bound covers, glossy images and printed pages, which festival attendees flipped through eagerly. The magazine tent was also popular this year, as Sad Mag and Poetry is Dead offered tips on how to start a ‘zine in the new era of print publishing.

“There used to be a stigma to self-publishing,” said Kaitlin Fontana, a UBC Creative Writing student and Editor of Prism magazine. “People would say, ‘If it was good, it would have been published by an official publisher.’ Now, the internet has opened everything up.”

If there was one thing the festival made clear, it was that the categories of “reader” and “writer” are not mutually exclusive.

“I’ve attended for many years, but this is my first time as an author,” said Christopher Meades, whose debut novel The Three Fates of Henrik Nordmark began as an entry in the 2007 Three-Day Novel Writing Contest.

“I live in a cubicle. I spend eleven hours a day looking at spreadsheets and doing not very exciting things. I asked myself, ‘What does it take to become unique? How can I leave a mark on the world after I’m gone?’ That’s why we write.”