Publicity

Lots of beautiful, bright, colourful posters in shop windows, pubs, cafes, gardens and on public notice boards attract local people. Make sure that they mention some of the features of the Faire.... craft market, food, fireworks etc.., plus time, date, and venue. Poster advertising agents who rent bill boards can be traced through the Yellow Pages of your telephone book.

Photo-litho printing is usually cheaper than silk-screening for large runs of posters, although it is worth contacting a local art school to ask if anyone there might do the donkey work to support your very worthy cause. If you haven't found a graphic designer for your committee, the local art school should produce someone.

If it's photo-litho you want then make the rounds of the printers to obtain the cheapest quote. The fewer colours on the poster the cheaper the job.

For Barsham we print around 500 posters. Most are poster size for shops and the like but some are double crown size for billboards.

Your very own artist will also be able to handle artwork for advertisements in local newspapers and magazines. There is also a lot of free publicity to be had in the media, but you have to work hard for it. Press releases should be addressed to journalists by name wherever possible, otherwise the News Desk of newspapers and local radio stations. The Artists and Writers Year Book, published by A. and C. Black at £1.50, or the reference section of local libraries, will provide addresses. If you want the word spread far and wide include national newspapers and TV on your list and find an approach which will interest them. Events held at Bank Holidays stand a good chance of a mention in the nationals' ‘Where to Go’ features.

Press handouts should be duplicated and distributed one month before the event (three months in the case of monthly mags). Any earlier means that your event will be forgotten, any later may mean that you miss a copy date. The short press release should be followed by letters and telephone calls. When it comes to publicity lobbying gets results.

The British Tourist Board, 64 St James Street, London W1 run a magazine called In Britain, which will almost certainly give your event a mention. Many towns have tourist and information offices which produce free literature on coming events, as do some Arts Associations (the regional branches of the Arts Council). The name and address of their Publicity Officer should be at the local library.

If the library has an exhibition area you can mount an exhibition to publicise your Faire the week beforehand, but you will need to book the space months ahead. The windows of empty shops in town centres are a useful publicity tool. Owners or their agents will usually give permission for a week long display at little or no charge. Events which happen before yours also provide a good opportunity of advertising. Barsham Faire Committee and friends have made several prize-winning entries in local carnival parades. It's great fun and works up an immense thirst to be abated afterwards by courtesy of the cash prize, which you go all out to win as a point of honour, and because winning entries are pictured in newspapers, thereby scoring you yet another free ad.

Programmes

For information at the Faire – who is where and what, you need a programme. At Barsham no-one knows the exact time of performances for every play or musician, but main attractions and spectacles are given a particular time. Programmes can vary from a small duplicated sheet to a special edition of a newspaper. East Suffolk has a community newspaper, the Waveney Clarion which produces a special issue come programme for Barsham. This is produced and paid for by the Clarion. Clarion people organise selling at the Faire and take the profits to boost their own funds.