Happy Friday, everyone!
This week's poll question is inspired by the fact that next week, our hometown, Pullman, Washington, will be holding the 25th Annual National Lentil Festival, celebrating the fact that the Palouse region is one of the lentil-growing capitals of the world. Where else can you get a free bowl of lentil chili (out of a 350-gallon pot, no less) on a Friday night?
This year, Rod crafted several different ads to showcase the festival's 25th anniversary; you can listen to them by clicking on the links below (to listen to them without leaving the page, right-click the links).
So, our question to you is:
What annual festival(s) does your town hold, and how does your station participate?
Please feel free to upload your photos and .mp3s of radio spots. We look forward to reading your replies!
Around Rapid City, SD we obviously have the Black Hills. Everything from Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Parks, The Badlands, blah blah blah - Tourism. But we are just wrapping up the annual Sturgis Rally today/tomorrow. It's a nice boost in sales a month or so prior to the event but it's also a nice kick in the butt to the economy as well.
Our community, Emporia, KS, holds the distinction of being the founding city of Veteran's Day so each November our celebration/recognition of this significant holiday spans about ten days, not just the 11th. Special events range from a golf tournament to a USO Show and a Veteran's Art Show. We're probably the only school district in the country that takes that day off. We hold the usual parade. A special ceremony is conducted at our All Veteran's Memorial. It is a major happening in Emporia each November and our stations become fully involved. An event or seminar of some sort is scheduled every day in town.
In Ontario it's the fiftieth anniversary of the setting up of 12 life sized scenes in the life of Christ. An arts and crafts fair surrounds it on the first Saturday in December. KSPA sells participating sponsorships of our remote broadcast.
The Pix shows me at out EZ-Up with Tremor, the mascot of the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes minor league baseball team.
Nice stogie, Big Joe!
We started "Brandon Hometown Days" six years ago. We host the event at a local park and line up about $10,000 worth of FREE STUFF for the kids to enjoy! I get sponsors to pay for everything and every penny left goes to a local non-profit. We do sell advertising packages to local business owners, so the station does make a little money, but it's not about that. It's about being involved in making the community a better place to live! (www.BrandonHometownDays.com)
This is a FUN and EASY event! We even invited another radio group to help promote the event! (it's AWESOME to work together on something)
There is no main event for Big Rapids but a series of small (to dismal) festivals, parades, et al. Surrounding smaller communities each have their own Heritage Days, Lilac Festival, Maple Syrup Festival, Troutarama, etc. that carry great similarities - a few rides, parade, street dance, pancake breakfast, BBQ, live music, beer tent, softball. For those towns, the various festivals are the main event.
We used to organize the biggest event in town: a Downtown Trick-or-Treating - a 3 hour window on the last Saturday before Halloween for kids to trick-or-treat in costume the downtown businesses during daylight hours. We held a costume contest prior. The downtown kicked us out because they were tired of buying candy for the 3500 kids that showed up. This event drew from 60 miles away. Short-sighted (we felt) on the part of the DBA. The replacement is an underpromoted and oftem disorganized Fall Festival with a few hundred in attendance.
The event, however, is (and was) a fantastic draw to a downtown. The beauty of it is the simplicity - you just pick a day and time of day, make a map of participating businesses - we also put window stickers up in advance on the businesses participating. From the business side all it means it having someone there to hand out candy and buying the candy - not a huge time commitment - and all the promotion was handled by us. This event has been added it in Traverse City and in Columbia, MO (where my daughter went to school) since Big Rapids pulled the plug.
We still hand out reflective trick-or-treat bags called Boo Bags all thru October. These were originally part of the Downtown Trick-or-Treating. The bags are filled with coupons and information. We go thru 5000.
Awesome, John! What a great model for communities that don't already have such an event in place. This is the kind of thing a station can put together in outline form and partner with the local Chamber of Commerce and or local service organizations like the Lions, Kiwanis, Rotary, etc. to bring to fruition. Super idea!
More Lentil lunacy...
