W
e’re not relying on word of mouth and last year’s success alone for this year’s fest
ival. Our goal is to
grow this event every year and advertising is a key commitment that we provide to you our merchant
partners to better ensure success.
We expect a 2
-
3 time increase over last year in attendees
.
Our
advertising plan includes not only Was
hington state but nationwide too. Our website’s hits increase
d
by
thousands
. Newspaper advertising, radio and TV announcements, as well as interviews are already in the
works. The sooner we get your application, the sooner we can advertise you on our websi
te.
L
ast year’s attendees and merchant partners provided us with some very creative suggestions that we’re
implementing this year. This year we will allow open sampling.
However we do ask that you provide
samples for both days. All
vendors are as
ked
to
donate 5% of their sales to the Museum of the North
Beach.
A
ttendee
s
will
be able to purchase “festival” tickets for $1 each. These have a cash value of an
actual dollar. Any tickets you
receive
will be reimbursed for the full amount at the end of the
festival.
We encourage everyone to participate in our Chocolate Recipe Contest. We have four professional
divisions
–
all information will be included in your packet. Winners will be notified Saturday with
placement & trophies announced
on Sunday.
We ar
e strongly encouraging every attendee to sample each
merchant’s special products. Last year, merchants with samples had the largest sales
.
Here’s what is expected of all participating merchants.
1)
Donate one item that represents what you sell for a door pr
ize.
2)
Have your representative present in your booth from open to close each day of festival.
3)
Have at least one Chocolate food
-
related and health
-
department approved item to sell.
4)
Have enough samples for 2 days.
Please remember the festival theme is chocol
ate.
You must actually sell chocolate or chocolate themed
items to participate.
The other new change is all power booths are along the walls. For safety reasons
all spaces with out power will be in the center of the room only, to avoid tripping over cor
ds. Double
spaces must either be with power or both without. All spaces along the walls are with power and will be
$45 each. Also,
the heat is not on in the building during the festival. A
ll spaces are 8f
t by 8ft
, and
include one 8ft table
. This is to
provide wider aisles for our handicapped attendees.
Space is limited and we sold out last year
.
Application and space payments are due n
o later than December 31st, 2009
. Chocolate on the Beach
Festival coordinators will provide acceptance notification
within 1 week of received application.
1