Fall Festival Flyer Ideas and Harvest Festival Wording for Churches, Schools and Towns

A fall festival flyer has more to fit than most event flyers: a date, a rain plan, a list of activities, and often a call for vendors and volunteers. Churches, schools and towns all run them, and a church that skips Halloween may call its version a harvest festival. This page covers what to list, wording for church, school and town festivals, background and poster ideas, and prompts to paste into Flyer Maker. Other fall and winter dates are in the month-by-month holiday flyer ideas.

What to put on a fall festival flyer

Festival flyers get read by people deciding whether it's worth the drive, so put the answer to that first. The top six are the ones people act on; the rest help once they've decided to come.

1. Festival name and host. "Wickham Grove Harvest Festival" or "Larch Street Fall Fest, hosted by the PTO".
2. Day, date and hours. "Saturday, October 17, 10 AM to 5 PM."
3. Address and parking. "Main Street between 1st and 4th Avenue. Free parking behind the library."
4. Admission. If it's free, say "Free admission" near the top. If games cost money, say how: "Wristbands $10, single tickets 50 cents."
5. Three or four headline activities. Hayrides, a pumpkin patch, a chili cook-off, a costume parade. A list of fifteen reads as clutter.
6. Rain plan. "Rain date: Sunday, October 18" or "Games move into the gym; hayrides cancel in rain."
7. Times for timed events. "Costume parade 1 PM, chili judging 2 PM, pie auction 3 PM."
8. Food and payment. "Chili, kettle corn and cider for sale. Cash and cards accepted."
9. Where the money goes. "All proceeds go to the new playground." This matters most for school and church festivals.
10. Vendor or volunteer call. "Craft vendors: tables $25, apply by Friday, October 2," with a QR code or email.
11. Contact. One email, phone number or web address.

Fall festival flyer ideas and wording

Each festival type below has a headline set, a couple of supporting lines and an ask you can adapt. Details are fictional.

Church harvest festival wording

A harvest festival flyer from a church works as a Halloween alternative when it says so plainly.

• Headlines: "Harvest Festival at Wickham Grove", "Fall Harvest Family Day", "Hayrides, Pie and Fellowship"
• Supporting lines: "A family-friendly alternative to Halloween night. Costumes welcome, nothing scary." "Free admission and free hot cider."
• Call to action: "Bring a friend. Sign up to run a game booth at the welcome table."

Some churches pair the festival with a parking-lot event later the same evening; the trunk or treat flyer page has that wording. Wording for other church events covers the rest of the church year.

School fall festival and fall carnival wording

• Headlines: "Larch Street Fall Fest", "PTO Fall Carnival"
• Supporting lines: "Games, a cake walk and a costume parade." "Wristbands $10, single tickets 50 cents. All proceeds go to the new playground."
• Call to action: "Volunteer for a one-hour booth shift: scan the code or email pto@example.com."

A school flyer goes home in a folder, so the price line matters more than the pictures. Parents want to know how much cash to send. If the PTO runs a bake sale table too, the bake sale flyer page has price-list wording.

Community and town fall festival wording

• Headlines: "Harlow Creek Fall Festival", "Harvest Days on Main Street"
• Supporting lines: "Live music, 30 craft vendors and a pumpkin patch." "Main Street closed to traffic from 9 AM to 6 PM."
• Call to action: "Full schedule and vendor list at example.com/fallfest."

Chili cook-off and pie contest wording

• Headlines: "Chili Cook-Off: Bring Your Best Pot", "Great Pie Contest"
• Supporting lines: "$20 to enter, $5 to taste. Judging at 2 PM." "Bring your chili hot in a slow cooker with a ladle."
• Call to action: "Enter by Friday, October 9 at chili@example.com."

Before the flyer lists food for sale, ask your county health department whether a chili or pie booth needs a temporary permit, and put any rule it gives you on the entry flyer.

Pumpkin patch and hayride wording

• Headlines: "Pumpkin Patch Fundraiser", "Hayrides and Hot Cider"
• Supporting lines: "Open daily 10 AM to 6 PM through Saturday, October 31." "Pumpkins $5 to $15 by size. Every dollar sends the youth group to winter camp."
• Call to action: "Hayrides cancel in rain, but the patch stays open. Check the weather line at 555-0162."

Design tips for fall festival flyers

Set the activities as a short list. People scan a festival flyer for the one thing their kids care about, like the hayride. A column of four activity names reads faster than a paragraph, and the Packed layout in Flyer Maker fits a longer schedule when you need one.

Pick a fall festival flyer background that leaves room for the schedule. A photo of a pumpkin field, an illustration of leaves, or a color blend from orange to deep red all say fall. Ask for a plain band or a light panel behind the details, because text over a busy pumpkin photo is hard to read.

Watch the contrast in autumn colors. Orange type on a brown background looks warm and reads poorly. Use cream or white type on dark brown, or dark brown on cream.

Match the pictures to the festival's promise. A church harvest festival that says "nothing scary" should show wheat, apples and sunflowers, not bats and ghosts. A town fall fest with a haunted hayride can use both.

Make a separate vendor flyer. Vendors need the table fee, the table size, setup time and the application deadline. Families need none of that. Two flyers keep both short.

Add a road poster. An A-frame sign at the entrance needs only the festival name, "Today", the hours and an arrow. Make it as its own Tall flyer.

Fall festival flyer and poster sizes

A fall festival usually needs a poster for the entrance or a library window, letter-size flyers for boards, and a phone version. Posters are read from a few steps back, so they need fewer pixels per inch than a flyer in your hand.

Every Flyer Maker file is a PNG, and for printing, choose 2K or 4K. At 18 by 24 inches, a poster has the same 3:4 shape as Flyer Maker's Tall size, and a 4K Tall file prints there at about 138 pixels per inch. 4OVER4's guide says 150 DPI works for a poster viewed from 3 to 5 feet, so the 4K file comes close. An 11 x 17 poster is a different shape: a Tall file printed 11 inches wide comes out about 14.7 inches tall, leaving white bands at the top and bottom. Other paper sizes are listed in the guide to flyer sizes.

More fall festival flyer prompts

These three cover pieces a festival needs besides the main flyer: a contest entry form, a vendor call and a pumpkin patch fundraiser. Each is ready for Flyer Maker once you replace the names, dates and prices.

Chili Cook-Off at the Harlow Creek Fall Festival. Saturday, October 17, entries set up by 12:30 PM, judging at 2 PM, at the Main Street and 2nd Avenue tent. $20 to enter, $5 to taste every chili, with prizes for hottest, best classic and people's choice. Bring your chili hot in a slow cooker with a ladle. Enter by Friday, October 9 at chili@example.com. Rustic look: a steaming pot, red peppers and a checkered tablecloth, drawn in an original style.

Craft Vendors Wanted for the Harlow Creek Fall Festival. Saturday, October 17, 10 AM to 5 PM, Main Street between 1st and 4th Avenue. 10 by 10 foot spaces for $25, bring your own tent and table, setup from 8 AM. Handmade goods only. Apply by Friday, October 2 at vendors@example.com. Add tear-off tabs along the bottom edge with the number 555-0174. Clean autumn design in cream and rust orange with a small leaf pattern.

Pumpkin Patch Fundraiser at Wickham Grove Community Church, 40 Chapel Road. Open every day from Saturday, October 10 to Saturday, October 31, 10 AM to 6 PM. Pumpkins $5 to $15 by size, hot cider $2, and hayrides on Saturdays every 20 minutes from 11 AM to 3 PM. Cash and cards accepted. Every dollar sends the youth group to winter camp. Come pick your pumpkin. Hayrides cancel in rain, but the patch stays open. Weather line: 555-0162. Photo-style background of a church lawn covered in pumpkins at golden hour with a hay wagon.

How to make a fall festival flyer in Flyer Maker

1. Open Flyer Maker and list the festival in "Describe your flyer". Name, host, day, date, hours, address, admission, the top activities, the rain plan and what you want people to do. There's room for 3,000 characters.
2. Under "Size", pick Tall for posters and board copies, and Portrait for the Facebook event.
3. Set "Quality" in "More options" to 4K for the 18 x 24 poster and letter copies; 2K is enough for half-page handouts.
4. Choose the Layout. Packed fits a schedule with times; Clean suits a flyer with three or four activities.
5. Choose Pictures and Colors. Photos or Illustration for the background, and Light colors if you'll print a lot of copies at home.
6. Turn on "Leave a blank square for your QR code" for a vendor or volunteer form. Place your real code in the empty square and test it with a phone before printing.
7. Check the finished flyer against your plan. Every time, price and address should match, with no slogans you didn't write. Corrections go in the "Want to change something?" box beneath the result (currently 60 credits, 70 for 2K, 90 for 4K), or rewrite the description and create it again.

For costume parties later in October, use the Halloween party flyer wording. The Thanksgiving flyer page covers November dinners and food drives.