St Ives September Festival will have a brand new feature this year, the Postcard Poetry Competition which carries a cash prize for the winner and other prizes of tickets for next year's festival.

Dave Brotherton, chairman of St Ives September Festival, said: "We want to challenge people’s creativity by asking entrants to submit new, and previously unpublished work on one side of a postcard only, which will obviously limit just how much can be expressed in such a small space.”

The free cards, containing full details of how to enter, are being sponsored by St Ives Holidays (Lanhams) and can be collected from their High Street offices or from Café Art in the Old Drill Hall, Royal Square. There will be special "post boxes" at each location for completed entries.

“We are extremely grateful for the support of St Ives Holidays in sponsoring this competition and it’s another example of how businesses in town and the festival can work together creatively,” said Dave.

The competition, which will be judged by well known local poet and performer Bob Devereux, was launched last Friday at Café Art and the free to enter cards are now available.

Local businesswoman Lucy Davis, proprietor of Café Art, has also agreed to host the information point for this year’s September Festival at her premises. “Expect daily updates on programme changes and a comments wall where festival goers can post their experiences of being in St Ives this September,” said Lucy, “alongside several exciting performances that we will be hosting in the café itself.”

The St Ives September Festival programme is updated frequently. For a current list of events and performers visit stivesseptemberfestival.co.uk.