Third Annual St. Augustine PoetFest
The Flagler College English Dept, the St. Johns Cultural Council, and I are putting on another St. Augustine PoetFest. It will be the Third Annual.Thank you for your monetary support when I traveled to Connecticut to present at the National Beat Poetry Festival last September.
SEEKING SPONSORS FOR THIRD ANNUAL ST. AUGUSTINE POETFEST
We are all volunteers and we did not get any grant money for this year’s PoetFest. The event is free and open to the public. We are inviting everyone to come to campus and celebrate poets and open mic poetry.
We are also doing a Thursday evening kick off event at the Waterworks and a Friday night gathering on the poetry porch of Relampago Coffee Lab at 74 Spanish Street.
If I can get a few businesses to donate money to the festival, I will give that money to the performers. 2024 is impressive: Chris Vannoy from California, Keynote George Wallace from Long Island New York, Claire Conroy from Maine, and Outlaw poet Ron Whitehead is traveling from Tennessee.
Again, this year our poetry festival is running on one hundred percent volunteer efforts. It is DIY. It is punk rock. It is the underground.
* $500 T-shirt Sponsor
Sponsor logo on the back of thirty Volunteer Staff T-shirts. The shirts cost $500 and each festival volunteer will receive and wear the shirt. Your business’s logo will be seen by everyone who attends this free, open to the public event.
* 100 Swag Bag items (10 business needed)
Logo pens, logo pencils, or $1 off coupons from your business. Although the festival is free and open to the public, we would like to get 100 names for our mailing list and use the stats like “city that you are visiting from” for next year’s grant applications. The first 100 people to sign in on the day of the event, we would like to give them a “Write on! Swag Bag.”
So far, I have 100 PoetFest stickers to put in the bags. I guess we also need some money from a sponsor to pay for the 100 bags to put the swag in.
* $100 Banner Sponsor (1 needed)
Also, $100 is needed for a St. Augustine PoetFest banner. We will put your logo on the banner in exchange for $100.
* $200 (Traveling Poet Sponsors)
We could also use a few $200 sponsors (Angels) to help defray the traveling expenses of traveling poets. Profesional are traveling from California, Long Island, NY, New Jersey, Maine, and South Florida. All on their own dime. They really should be compensated for their time, talents, and transportation to Northeast Florida.
* $100 (AKA “Poetry Angels”)
We could use ten $100 contributions to help with miscellaneous operating costs.
* Sponsor for Closing Reception
This year, our festival will wrap after the 3:30 Haiku Awards Ceremony on Saturday April 13. This is being done to accommodate festival goers who might want to also attend the Gamble Rogers Folk Festival that evening and on Sunday April 14th. We would like to wrap our festival with a nice heavy horderve food and drink reception on the second floor of the Ringhaver Student Center on the Campus of Flagler College. Who would like to host the reception?
* A Few Complimentary Downtown Hotel Rooms
Also seeking a hotel who would like to award the festival a complimentary room for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (April 10-13).
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Send you donations here:
https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/poetplantpress
Save the Date: April 11-13, 2024.
Kick off at the Waterworks (184 San Marco Ave) with a Beat Poet Summit followed by an open mic on the evening of Thursday, April 11th. On Friday and Saturday on the campus of Flagler College we will have two days of book talks, panels, a visit from the St. Johns County Book Mobile, and a keynote presentation by George Wallace. On Friday night there will be an off campus open mic hosted by the Flagler College English Department.
All the info:
https://www.floridashistoriccoast.com/events/st-augustine-poetfest/
Respectfully,
Chris Bodor,
* President Ancient City Poets – St. Augustine Chapter of Florida State Poets Association (FSPA)
* 2024 Chair Third Annual St. Augustine PoetFest
* Florida Beat Poet Laureate (2023-2025)
Ancient City Poets 