What you wrote in you short summary seems to me you could use as basis for press releases, i.e.

“Owl’s About That..Small Towns Festivals Puts Unique Spotlight On Minnesota’s Natural Heritage”

“Owl’s You Kidding Me…This Small Town Helps Jamaicans Put The Hoot In Their Reggae”

(*here you could focus on the international interest in your festival)

Hootenanny the name ties into owls so why not have an Hootenanny festival along with your own.
Invite folk music artist to perform at the festival.

Lots of sports teams have owls on logos or as nicknames perhaps you can tap into an argument that
this is bad for the animals because it trivializes them to sort of cartoon characters and makes people less sensitive to efforts to prevent extinction ala similar disputes about Native American names on sports teams.

Invite amaetur nature photogs to festival and provide them a platform to show off photography skills have judges award an “Hoot Illustrated Award”

This is a takeoff on the Sports Illustrated Magazine because you’re tapping into beef with sports because you believe…
“Owls Should Be Seen In Nature Not On Football Helmets!”

See if you can tie into fundraising joint ventures with other Owl sensitive groups. One I heard of is called the Hungry Owl Project.

What about a live owl watch cam on your website to generate interest?

Your website is full of great information and terrific pictures…but it is not communicating the sense of fun that I think this owl festival could be? Home page especially could pack a lot more punch and wow to encourage people to go on.

In additon, someone from your organization could give presentations about any owl subject in nearby classrooms. Also, some schools allow you to provide stacks of flyers which they will send home with their kids. You can simply call and ask making it easy to do this for schools a bit farther away than you can visit, but that are still within a reasonable travel time for the festival. Figure all of these activities are for promotion and leading up to, rather than during the event.

Best of luck!

This would be a great family-oriented activity.

We went to the Hummingbird Festival in Mississippi, found out about it on a flyer at the Visitors Information Center, rest area. They have over 800 people over their weekend. We just happen to be driving thru the weekend before, saw the flyer, and planned to stop by on our way home. Probably not terribly creative, but may be something worth doing if you haven’t done it yet. Get the people who are passing thru ” the neighborhood”.

The Owl is the mascot for Mensa members (Wisconsin for sure – but I think internationally). I would suggest a tie-in with Mensa International. I know they would love to place an article about your event and/or organization in their monthly publication. These folks are also a great source of puns, if you want some “humor.”

Perhaps you can alert the press to your event by pointing out it is National Wildlife week, and what the center does to increase wildlife awareness. A second thought is to have a event centered around the the Girl Scouts, maybe host a badge ceremony. Adorable children are always a great front page picture in the newspaper.

Best of luck with your event.
Mital