Lit Fest to light up Mills Park soon

Lit is what people will get in Carson City over the weekend, but it will be from wordsmithing and the like rather than imbibing.

The event is the inaugural Great Carson City Lit Fest at Mills Park, the Carson City Library and the Community Center on Friday through Sunday.

It is the brain child of Ellen Hopkins, best-selling novelist, who lives in southern Washoe County and is the driving force behind the Ventana Sierra Youth Housing & Resources Initiative. Ventana Sierra helps provide post-foster care housing for young adults, as well as other help.

The Lit Fest will feature various well-known authors and dip into other arts as well, but with a primary focus on literature.

“There is no other event of this kind in Northern Nevada,” Hopkins said. “I’ve participated in book festivals across this county. My goal is to build an event to rival the best of them.”

Hopkins is bringing in an eclectic group of authors, poets, memoirists, story tellers and others, as well as various vendors and others for a family-friendly weekend of activities.

Among them are both free and ticketed thinking and entertainment opportunities such as author readings, panels, book signings, story telling, kid-centric cooking demos, refreshments, kids’ crafts or entertainments, art-focused booths, a swap meet for books and other media, a battle of the bands and other music.

Ticketed events include world class slam poetry and two performances at the Bob Boldrick Theater in the Community Center of “Flirting With the Monster,” an adaptation for stage performance of Hopkins’ book “Crank”. The poetry slam is at 8 p,m. Friday, the stage productions at 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. Proceeds from ticketed events go to benefit Ventana Sierra.

Carson City’s Library and Ventana Sierra combined to put on the Lit Fest. Hopkins said even before this one was held, another is in the works.

“Plans are already under way for 2015,” she said, “and we have some great surprises in store.”