A restaurant manager complained about a Sled Island festival poster that advertised the band Holy F---. The word has been blurred out in this image. (CBC)

Organizers of Calgary's Sled Island festival are reprinting their promotional posters after allowing an obscenity to slip through the first time.

"I looked at the poster and thought, 'Oh gee,' " festival director Zakary Pashak said, referring to the words Holy F---.

Holy F--- is an electronic band from Toronto, and one of the 250-plus bands scheduled to perform at Sled Island next month. The band made headlines last summer when the Harper government used its name to justify cuts to arts funding.

Bright, pink posters including the name of the band have been plastered all over the inner city.

Ali Clark, manager at Kane's Harley Diner in Inglewood, said no one asked for permission to put up a poster in her restaurant.

"One of the kids pointed out to me there are swear words on a poster," she said. "That's appalling to find in a family restaurant."

Clark said she was at first distracted by the cute illustration that accompanied the profanity.

"It has a bunny on it," she said while crumpling up the poster. "Imagine your eight-year-old going over to read it."

Focus should be on music, not the word

Dozens of sponsors, including the CBC, are involved with Sled Island this year. The bigger sponsors had their names and logos printed on the bottom of the poster. Those include the Calgary Sun, the Calgary Arts Foundation and the City of Calgary.

"Sounds to me like somebody didn't edit the poster well enough," Ald. Ric McIver said. "I would say it was an unfortunate oversight and one that should be corrected."

McIver said the city needs to be more careful with where its logo ends up.

Beth Gignac, manager of arts and culture with the city, said her department does not go through every poster to edit content.

'This is a good band; this is good music; this is a great festival the City of Calgary is lucky to have.'—Terry Rock, Calgary Arts Development

"The City of Calgary was not necessarily aware of the full band lineup for Sled Island," she said. "We've been helping Sled Island extensively over the past year in terms of their operations and logistics. That's where our area of sponsorship, concern and involvement with the organization goes. So, our logo is on the poster."

In this case, Gignac said, the word was not used in an offensive context.

Terry Rock, president and CEO of Calgary Arts Development agreed, saying the focus should be on the music and not the word itself.

"We're very fortunate Sled Island has booked this band to play in Calgary," he said. "This is a good band; this is good music; this is a great festival the City of Calgary is lucky to have."

Organizers of Sled Island are now busy reprinting posters.

Pashak said some letters of the band's name will be replaced with asterisks.

"We apologize that those got into family restaurants," Pashak said.