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Tools / Resources / Links Advice From Small Festivals This page is available in a MS Word document (9 pages). At the beginning of the festival project we asked several small festivals to share advice they would give anyone wanting to have a small community festival. Following are their responses. What information and advice would you give a group starting a small community festival? Ken Williams, Stringbean Festival, Jackson County, Kentucky Mission Statement Have a mission statement and have it as big as it can be and have as many people as possible have input so then it is OUR statement not their statement and people then ask how are we going to achieve this. You need to create ownership. If anyone has a problem it is YOUR problem as well. Don’t pass the buck. You want people at the festival to have a good experience. Your mission statement should include something about how we are going to serve the public and we are going to make it a pleasant experience. You should redo the mission statement every year so everyone is involved and it becomes OUR statement. You can start with the old one and the moderator can help pull it out from the people. Think about how many people you can handle at your festival. Committees You need to set up committees. It is better to give assignments to committees, not to individuals. There is a better chance of the work getting done. Always set a deadline for completion of the work. If the job is not done by that deadline then you need a new committee. Meetings Whoever is in charge of the meeting should stand up and get people’s attention. When the moderator sits then small conversation start all over the room. You need to have visual aids and handouts. Don’t give handouts with lots of reading first as people will stop and read and not listen to what is going on. Learn from other festivals Go to as many festivals as you can to see what others do. Talk to the people who put on the festival. People putting on festivals are proud of their festivals and willing to talk about their festival and how they do things. Volunteers You need to acknowledge volunteers in a special way. T-shirts are a good way to do it. A $6 T-shirt can get you a person volunteering for 7 hours. The person is proud and it gives you free advertising when they wear the shirt at other times during the year. Stringbean gave free shirts and it was a big hit. It provided better recognition than a plaque given to volunteers. Hats can work well also. Burnout can be a problem. Don’t give people too much work and don’t overload them. Try to build a large base of volunteers. Try to make it a status symbol to be a volunteer. Make volunteers have good time and great experience and reward them afterwards and let them know they are special and important. Publicity Brochures are not that effective. Stories in the paper, radio or TV are much better. Press releases must be in the proper format. Most all are generated by computer and must be camera ready. You need to contact the paper and find out what font used, how wide the column is, how big is type etc. Then print your article in that format on clear smooth paper. Be careful how you word things. Example it was not clear that tents were NOT being provided by Stringbean festival. I had said I am assigning the booths instead of assigning the spaces. Sponsors and raising money Get people involved in a meeting, and then you can get them to be a sponsor. Talk about the need for sponsorship. The sponsor is offered premium booth space. You can also put a banner on stage with their name and put their name in all the written materials and acknowledged on stage. Many sponsors already have banners made that you can use. Some of the areas we talk about to sponsors include youth, heritage, music, and education. People will give to a cause they believe in. If you are trying to get big money out of someone you best do research and know what they are interested in. People will give because they are asked. Know what your sponsor is capable of giving. Be careful in small counties as some sponsors give to everybody. You need to have data when asking for money. You need to know how much things are going to cost. Thank you letters are extremely important. Advertising Advertising in your festival booklet also can help pay for your festival. If you sell $4oo of advertising then spend 1/2 of that on printing so you have nice big advertisements and advertisers feel like they are getting their monies worth. Your advertising needs to be snazzy. If quantity goes down then quality goes up. We had 21,000 copies printed to be inserted in newspapers and handed them out to certain locations like Banks and the county extension service. We paid to have it put in the paper. We also advertise on the local radio station. Security Security is a problem. Example for us was vandalism in toilets. I would rather pay someone to sit and be an attendant in the toilet than have vandalism. I like to hire local people so the money can stay in the county with a county person. Checklists You need to think about the details of everything. Check lists are very helpful. If something does not work then add it to next year’s checklist. Checklists also make it easier for new people to know what needs to be done. Mail Lists You must create a mailing list. You can have a mailing list sheet for people to sign on for at the festival. You need to keep people up to date about your festival and the changes planned. You must personalize the letter. Drop people who have not come. We mail about 1,000 pieces a year. Give away festival tickets Advertisers get free tickets. Keep track of how many years advertisers have been with you, how much they give. Free tickets can be used to develop friendships. Keep track of free tickets given away and who used them. We give away 15 – 20 tickets for every 1 paid for. It is important to know people who have been involved in the festival. Nancy Gabbard, Daniel Boone Days, Booneville, Owsley County, KY If you want to have a cultural heritage festival you need to know what kind of resources you have available. You need hands on activities for all ages and the nitty gritty details of how to make those activities happen. Know your community, who are your resources, who has done this before. There are people who know how do specific jobs, like people who really know how to do floats. Involvement of school kids is very important. You need careful planning. Identify who takes care of what. For example you have a blown fuse and you know who can fix it. Safety is a real issue. People not aware they can be sued and so don’t think safety is an issue. Make a plan for dealing with liability issues. You need to know how to anticipate for the future and make appropriate plans. Rhonda Brashear, Mary Breckinridge Festival, Hyden, Leslie County, KY. Start with a basic idea and build around the theme. Set your goals. Target the population you want to serve. People want to capture the feeling of old time, sitting in front porch. Utilize your local talents such as the crafters, cooks etc. Have people on the committee with organizational skills. You need a skeleton crew who will do anything from garbage pick up to running meetings. There is a physical and mental aspect to having a festival. Money is very important. Get sponsors to buy into the festival ideas. You need sales people who can convey the theme to the business and give them the vision of the festival so they can see the outcome. Working on the festival should be fun, rewarding and fulfilling for the committee and volunteers. Everyone should have a voice. Running a festival should not be done be by a dictatorship, rather by group effort. You do need a strong leader with ideas, but if the group does not buy into it, it will never work. Don’t choose a time for your festival that competes with other festivals. Don’t do anything the local community and residents can get angry about. Mary Ethel Wooton, Mary Breckinridge Festival, Hyden, Leslie County, KY Start early, early in planning your festival. Pull in as much diversity from the community, including every type of institution in your county. This brings in financial support as well. You need people who are community minded. Recruit volunteers at churches and community groups Try to get men involved as they have contacts. Try to enlist help from city and county government to help with logistical support. Keep your scope narrow Set a few goals that are attainable. When you reach them then expand. When you have decided on activities be sure everyone knows. Make sure you have a mechanism for clean up of trash. Don’t burn people out. Make sure you have another person to do the work. Need to identify activities to do AND have people who will do the activity. It is hard to get people involved. You need to know your audience and what they need. When you organize your committee don’t let one group dominate. Keep focused on the purpose. Ray Wilson, Mary Breckinridge Festival, Hyden, Leslie County, KY Define what is the festival, where do you want to go with it and what activities do you want to offer. You need to define who you are and what you do. Identify who is your audience. Identify what you are doing that is different or unique. Collaboration is important so identify whom you want to bring in. Look at the competition, what is their schedule and what do they do. One or two people should not run the festival. You need lots of people. The more people involved the more successful the festival will be. Don’t try to be everything. Don’t try to do more than you are capable of. Know you can’t please everybody. There will always be criticism. Plan year round, don’t wait until the end. Be careful of the person who has an idea and can talk the longest and loudest to get their idea accepted. Francine Bonny, Mushroom Festival, Irvine, Estill County, KY Publicity You must start with publicity at least 6 months in advance. Use as many free ads as possible. Do not wait for the newspapers to do something. Write articles and send them in. Try to have one page in the local newspaper with all the events. Check with local and regional tourism offices to see what they can do to help promote the festival. Have a website for the festival. Have business cards made to give to artists and demonstrators you meet at other festivals or workshops if you want to encourage them to come to your festival. Have a brochure that can be sent to out of town folks with information about the festival. Make it so you can mail it without an envelope. Make a calendar of events sheet. Always have dates for next year’s festival on all information you send out. Vendors, craft exhibitors, food booths Keep a list of applications from vendors. Send a letter and application to all vendors in the region. A disclaimer must go on all forms for food, crafts, car show etc. Request proof of insurance from all food vendors, car show, rides. Have an application form for vendors and crafts exhibitors that include a place for them to sign a waiver and an agreement to follow all the rules. Have a deadline for vendor and exhibitor applications and it should be by at least three weeks before the festival so you can plan space. Put the check number and date on all application forms. Stamp the date when the application is turned in/received. Send a letter to all vendors and crafters once they have been accepted to participate. Send directions with a map and a close up map to vendors and craft exhibiters. Have a vendor packet that includes an evaluation form for the vendors, crafters and food vendors. Hospitality for vendors When vendor or exhibitor arrives give them a packet and hospitality ticket for morning juice, coffee etc from Band Boosters. Francine provides the orange juice, doughnuts and the band boosters provide the coffee. The band boosters give the tickets to Francine and she pays them 50 cents a vendor person. You need maps that show the location of booths, electric hook ups, water, porta- johns etc. Have a copy of the map out on the street, in city hall and send to all the vendors. Always think of the vendors, exhibitors etc. as being new to your place and so they need directions and to know where the lights are etc. You are the host and they are your guests. You want them to feel warm and welcomed and to go away with a warm feeling about your festival. Donations Write a letter asking for donations. Make a list of all business and ask committee members make contact and ask for donations. Judging contents People need to know how they are being judged. Put the judging criteria in the newspaper article. Have a point sheet for every activity judged and keep the results for a year so people cannot argue. Avoid flea market Rent any empty lots in town to prevent people selling made in China items and flea market items. Committees Plan to have regular meetings with good attendance. Send a letter giving the day and time the meeting will be held and include the agenda then follow-up with a call to make sure they are coming. Committees need to work ahead of time, get details worked out and then have the committee chair present a report verbally. You need good committee chairs, people who you can trust. Keep a list of everyone’s name, address, phone, etc. Tell committees exactly what is expected of them and give them all the resources they need to get the job done. For example Francine provides all the past letters, the applications, the scoring sheets for the window decoration contest. The committee chair can take the material provided and organize and run the contest, as well as attending festival meetings and following up on anything. Have examples of application forms and scoring sheets for committees that need them. Parliamentary procedure is important. Establish one place where all the records can be. Have a filing cabinet there with folders for each committee so anyone can go in and read. You must make the festival a team effort Meet within a month after the festival is over and ask all committees to make a report. Have committee members do an evaluation at end of festival. Calendar Keep a calendar of what needs to be done by when and who’s is responsible. Keep the calendar in a common meeting area so people can check off what they have done. Policy Establish guidelines, rules, and regulations such as a disclaimer form. You must be legal in all that you do. Identify what permits are needed. If someone writes a cold check they are never invited back. Budget You need to create a budget and identify where the money comes from, how it is received and accounted for and how is it disbursed. Identify what things cost. You cannot think in terms of my event took in x amount of dollars and it is my money. Your event’s dollars might be able to pay for a losing event. Every chair needs to estimate a budget - what will come in and go out. The festival chair can add up all the committee budgets and present to everyone. It maybe that a subcommittee needs to rethink the budget. Electricity You must have someone on site at all times who knows about the electric set up. Entertainment – games and rides by vendors The festival should take 15% of their take. Grandstand Decide who performs on the grandstand. Have a contract for each performer including the date, pay, and rain plan. Have someone who acts as the MC for the stage and pay them $50. T-shirts T-shirts are good advertising and a fundraiser. We only make $1 or $1,.50 on each shirt that sells for $6. We try to make it affordable for families. You can have a logo contest every year. Make sure and change colors every year. Activities Think about what civic group or organization can carry out an activity at the festival- like Lions club doing a pancake breakfast. Gospel sing – bring in outside gospel groups and have free concerts. Pass the hat for a love offering to help pay. Post Office cancellations Having a special stamp made for the festival can be a special thing. Have artwork created by having a contest. Your local PO makes the stamp (rubber stamp) and has a booth and stamps letters. The PO sells a postcard with the stamp on it. There is no cost to the festival and it is something different.