The Whitstable Oyster Festival Association (WOFA), organisers of the popular Whitstable Oyster Festival, today announced details of a sponsorship opportunity for businesses participation.

In addition to the existing support listings that appear in the Festival programme and website, http://www.whitstableoysterfestival.co.uk/, companies are now able to show their support for the local community with a range of packages that put their name before thousands of residents and visitors to the annual Festival.

Opportunities exist from funding individual logo enabled items to sponsoring events, in categories that include food and drink, historical, entertainment and fun, art, music, street theatre and those specifically provided as community events.

To discuss these options, businesses can contact Brenda Welch on 01227 280969 or through the WOFA website - http://www.wofa.org/.

An addition to the Whitstable Oyster Festival Association's website was announced today in the form of a Public Forum for users to post ideas, constructive comments and discuss aspects of this year's Festival.

This enables residents and visitors to get involved with the Festival and provide feedback in a way not previously possible. A forum board is also included to allow registered users to display their pictures of this year's or previous Festivals.

WOFA Secretary, Brian Baker, said, "The provision of this new resource is indicative of the way that WOFA is reaching out to the local and wider communities to include everyone and shows the transparency of its decision making process."

The Whitstable Oyster Festival Forum can be found at http://www.wofa2007.xterm.org/

The deadline for receiving applications for inclusion in this year's Whitstable Oyster Festival programme and website has been set for 30th April.
The programme run of 15,000+ and the popular Festival website www.whitstableoysterfestival.co.uk, not only give coverage during the festival, but are a useful source of information for residents and visitors alike during the whole year.

Listings are categorised under restaurants and galleries, plus, new for this year, shops and businesses. Participants can obtain listings in the programme and on the website separately, with the web listings linking to the company's website if it has one.

Owners of paid listings will receive a window sticker showing their support of the local community via the Oyster Festival and in addition those contributors, or sponsors, with web sites will be licensed to use the official Festival logo as evidence of their support.

If you wish to purchase a listing or are considering sponsorship or donations please check out the documents section of the Whitstable Oyster Festival Association (WOFA) website, where you can also contact the association's members to find out more.

The income derived by WOFA from the listings, sponsorship and donations, directly funds community projects and events for children during the festival.

You can find the WOFA website at www.wofa.org.uk