The Alt Press Festival’s main goal is to showcase the incredible work of local artists and writers from across the city, with a specific emphasis on independent publishing and book arts. The festival helps to educate the general public about the vibrant underground publishing community that exists in Salt Lake, while helping to maintain the vibrancy of local indie culture. Locals who create zines and book art related materials have the opportunity to network and to see the creative output of their colleagues. The secondary goal of the festival is to highlight the conformity of traditional publishing and to show works that are left outside of mainstream publishing circles. As more and more publishing houses merge into large conglomerates, it has become important for librarians to seek out voices that get left behind and stories that are easily lost. There is, of course, difficulty in finding underground publishers and zine makers due to the fact that they are meant to be hard to find and are transitory by nature. The library has made a concerted effort to build good relations with artists and writers with the creation of an Alt Press Facebook page. The Facebook page allows the library to stay in contact with community members and to promote our Alternative Press collection all year long, and not just during the month of the festival.

There are several elements that make this festival innovative. First, the exhibit spaces are free and open to anyone who wants a table. This is incredibly unusual for zine and alternative press festivals. The library believes that the best way to support local artists and writers is to make sure that there is no barrier for them to share their ideas and products. The library creates a call for entries two months before the July festival and we work hard to contact local print makers, book arts creators, and zine makers to ensure they know about the festival and have an opportunity to reserve a table. Secondly, we try and take the festival outside of the library. Last year, a festival badge gave you access to local concerts and to festival prints made by local artists. In 2012, the library hosted bands outside of the library to help promote the independent spirit of the festival. The ability to take the themes of the festival and expand them beyond the library walls is something we are excited about and would like to do more of in the future. The festival also makes an effort to connect the local zine making community with the larger national zine making movement. For the 2013 festival, the library invited two publishers of zines from Baltimore to expose the local underground publishers to the larger, national world of zines.

The City Library has made a strong commitment to underground publishing and alternative voices since 1997 when it founded the first zine collection in a public library. For the past seven years, the Alt Press Fest has become a day of celebrating the library’s commitment to seeking out local voices to add to the zine collection. One of the best outcomes of the festival has been the blossoming of the local zine culture. When the City Library started collecting zines, it was extremely rare to find local zines. With the addition of the festival, we have a plethora of local artists and writers making and contributing to zines. These writers are now actively creating zines with the library’s collection in mind. In terms of lessons learned specifically about running the festival, we have learned that having bands play outside, at 2 pm, in the middle of July is not ideal. The high temperatures are a deterrent for the audience and for the bands. We also learned that we have about a 4-5 hour window of success for the festival. Once the festival exceeds 5 hours, tempers begin to flare and attention wanes. The final lesson learned, is that we need to always make sure there are spaces and tables for reserved for people who show up on the day. Building flexibility into the schedule is an important way to create good will with local artists.