How to Submit a Community Event to The Priory Tribune: A Step-by-Step Guide

Every week, The Priory Tribune's inbox fills with good news: a scout group's jumble sale, a choir's winter concert, a litter pick on the common, a first novel launched in the back room of a café. Also every week, a handful of those emails arrive too late, or attached to a photo nobody can read, or with no venue written down anywhere. So we end up writing back to ask, and the event slips a week. This guide is here to stop that happening to yours.

Below is how event submissions work: the form, the deadlines, the photo rules, and the small details that decide whether your listing runs online, in print, or not at all.

What Counts as a Community Event

We're a local paper, so the test is simple. Does it happen in or around the Priory? Can members of the public turn up? If both answers are yes, it belongs in the listings.

That covers church hall quiz nights, school fairs, park runs, open gardens, remembrance services, charity cake sales, amateur theatre, guided walks, repair cafés and one-off talks. It also covers events run by businesses when the point is the event rather than the sales pitch — a bookshop hosting a poetry evening, for instance.

It doesn't cover straight commercial promotions, ongoing weekly classes, or party political meetings. Classes and clubs belong in our regular groups column, and political events go to the news desk rather than the listings inbox.

Walking Through the Submission Form

The form is short — a handful of fields and a photo upload. It should take you five minutes if you have the details in front of you. Here's what each field is for, and how to fill it in so we don't have to come back with questions.

1. Event title. Keep it plain and specific: "Priory Horticultural Society Spring Show", not "Bloomin' Marvellous!" We need to know what it is at a glance, and so do readers skimming the listings page.
2. Date and times. Give the day, the date, and both a start and a finish time. If doors open at 7pm and the music starts at 7.30pm, say so. If it runs across two days, submit it once and note both dates.
3. Venue. Full name and address, including the postcode. "The usual place" means nothing to a reader who has just moved to the area. If the venue is hard to find, add one line of directions.
4. Organiser and contact. A real name, plus a phone number or email address we can publish. Listings without a contact point get held, because readers regularly ask us for more information.
5. Description. Around 80 to 120 words. What happens, who it's for, whether tickets are needed and where to get them, and whether there's food, parking or step-free access. Write it as you'd say it out loud.
6. Cost. Free, £3 on the door, £8 including refreshments — whatever it is. "Small charge" is not helpful.
7. Accessibility. Step-free entry, hearing loop, accessible toilets, quiet space. If there's nothing to note, leave it blank rather than guessing.
8. Photo. One image, and we'll use it in print and online. Details below.

If you're raising money

Fundraising events are welcome, but please check your own licensing, insurance and collections paperwork before you submit. That's between you and the relevant authority, and we aren't able to advise on it.

Deadlines: When to Hit Send

Our print pages close at midday on the Monday before that week's edition, and they close hard. Anything received after that either runs online only or waits for the following week.

• Print and online: at least ten days before the event.
• Online only: 48 hours before, and we'll usually publish within one working day.
• Same-day requests: we'll try, but we can't promise anything, and we won't hold up the news pages for a listing.
• Big events — festivals, fetes, anything with a programme — send them three weeks ahead if you can. We sometimes give those a small preview in the news section, and that needs planning time.

One more thing: send it once. Duplicate submissions from three different committee members create three times the work and usually end up with three slightly different versions of the same event.

Photo Specs That Actually Work

The single biggest reason a listing looks thin is a bad photograph. A phone picture is fine — we're not asking for a professional shoot — but these rules matter:

• Send a JPEG or PNG, at least 1200 pixels on the long edge. Small images look soft in print.
• Landscape, not portrait. Portrait shots get cropped awkwardly on the page.
• Send the photo on its own, not as a screenshot of a flyer. Flyer text is unreadable at print size, and we'll need the wording typed into the description field anyway.
• Skip the heavy filters. Sharp and natural beats moody and orange.
• Tell us who's in the picture and who took it, so we can credit it properly.
• If children are identifiable, make sure a parent or guardian has agreed to the photo being published.

What Gets a Listing Accepted — and What Gets It Held

Most submissions go straight through. The ones that don't are almost always missing something basic rather than being unsuitable.

Accepted: clear title, confirmed date and venue, a named contact, a description someone could act on, and a usable photo.

Held: "date to be confirmed", a venue still being negotiated, no contact details, a photo that's a blurry screenshot, or a description that reads like an advert rather than an invitation. We'll email you once to ask for the missing piece. If we don't hear back before the deadline, the listing waits for next week — or doesn't run.

After You Submit: Edits and Cancellations

Things change. If the venue moves or the start time shifts, reply to your submission confirmation with the correction rather than sending a fresh form, and we'll update both the online listing and the print version where we still can. If you have to cancel, tell us the moment you know — a wrong listing sends people to a locked hall on a Saturday morning, and that reflects badly on you and on us.

A Last Look Before You Click Send

Run through this and you'll be fine:

1. Date, start time and finish time, all confirmed by the venue.
2. Full address with postcode.
3. Your name and a contact detail we can publish.
4. A description of 80 to 120 words, written plainly.
5. Cost, and how people get tickets if they need them.
6. One landscape photo, decent size, with a caption and credit.
7. Sent at least ten days ahead.

Get those right and your event will land on the page where people are actually looking for something to do on Saturday. That's the whole point of the listings, and it's the reason we'd rather spend our time reading your submissions than chasing missing postcodes.

Photo: Pexels / Pixabay