Friends and sponsors are a vital element in creating a successful festival. We urge visitors to look for the Festival Friends signs displayed by Whitstable businesses, showing that they have given financial support to this important community event.

We need local business support, be it financial or in-kind, to help us provide festival events, and anyone who runs a local business can become a Festival Friend. With the Festival attracting 75,000 people over the course of a week, there are very few businesses that don’t benefit from the Festival in one way or another. Bear in mind too, that festival visitors are year round customers just as much as tourists and day visitors. So why not give us your support?

There are a host of good reasons to become a Festival Friend.

The Festival brings new people to Whitstable

The Festival kick-starts the summer season at the beginning of the school holidays each year. Extensive coverage through local and national media ensures that people are enthused afresh each year, keeping a regular flow of visitors to the town throughout the season and beyond.

The Festival promotes a positive town image

2008 Festival media highlights included a Meridian ITV broadcast - one complete episode of their evening magazine programme live from the Festival; a BBC pilot for a new cookery programme filmed in the Harbour (aptly titled ‘A Flavour of Whitstable’); and the opening episode for the BBC’s ‘Coast’ series. Due for UK broadcast on July 14th, this includes the unique Whitstable tradition of Grotter making and will be syndicated worldwide.

The Festival benefits Whitstable people

With a strong tradition of providing free and very low cost events, the Festival is a real benefit to the town’s population, and especially those with families to entertain. Enormous efforts are made to offer as wide a choice of events as possible, catering for as wide a variety of tastes as possible. So while, the local shops, restaurants and guest houses benefit from the extra income that visitors bring, local residents benefit from the free entertainment on offer.

The Festival benefits your business

In exchange for support we can offer a range of opportunities to Festival Friends:

• A listing in the printed Festival Programme
• Advertising space on the Festival website
• Links to your own website from ours
• Marketing and merchandising opportunities – for businesses suited to one of our themes
• Assistance with Festival promotions
• An easily identifiable ‘Festival Friend’ sticker for your door, window or reception area.

Each year, WOFA contacts as many local businesses as possible but time constraints mean we cannot talk to everyone. Because we need Friends and Sponsor income to plan the final festival content our deadline is two months before the Festival, and many businesses realise the benefits too late. So don’t feel you have to wait for us - you can contact is at any time during the year by using our Friends Submission Form.