Attn Organizers: Comp Fliers

Contests I've been involved with have done several types of print materials. I think you are going in the right direction thinking of newsprint - getting these done by the local newspaper is typically the most cost effective, especially if you can barter for sponsorship. Obviously ad inclusion is saleable to your sponsors, though probably not very effective for direct impact unless they have an applicable retail business nearby and you include some sort of coupon. (i.e. $5 off a tank of gas, free drink with sandwich purchase, etc).

The most useful things you can put in the paper are a festival map and schedule of events. Including team bios/pictures will guarantee some of the papers will be retained after the event, but gathering and editing these can be a lot of work.

Oh, and if you charge anything at all for these programs you'll end up with bales of them unsold at the end of the weekend. Make 'em cheap and recyclable and give 'em away.

It's a good idea to make a separate flyer to post in local shop windows and such. Letter size up to 11 x 17 will do the trick - black copies on colored paper is eye-catching and economical.

Hi Eric:

As far as flyers go, here is the 8x11 flyer the comp I was just in distributed. I took 4th overall, 2nd place chicken, and 1st place ribs, BTW.