LEWISTON — Lewiston-Auburn will host the 18th annual Great Falls Balloon Festival from Friday to Sunday, Aug. 20 through 22.

The festival theme this year will be “Celebrating Maine Farms.” One of the special shapes this year will be sure to make a spectacular impression as it is a huge red barn with farm animals looking out the windows. It is titled “Old McDonald’s Farm.”

The Festival Committee hopes to involve all children in the Lewiston-Auburn area, grades one through 12, by having a poster contest. The rules of the contest are as follows:

• The child must be enrolled in any school or home-schooled, grades one through 12.

• The poster must express, as near as possible, the theme of the festival, “Celebrating Maine Farms.”

• All posters must have an official poster contest entry form completed and attached on back of each poster board.

• Only one entry each child allowed.

The contest will begin on Monday, April 12, and the entry deadline is Friday, May 14. Judging will take place on Thursday, May 20. All winners will be notified by June 4.

Posters will be judged by a panel of local business people, members of the Festival Committee, a local student and an art teacher from one of the schools. There will be five poster winners from each group, grades one to six and grades seven to 12. Two grand prize winners will be chosen from the group winners. Judging will be done prior to the end of the school year.

All winners will get to ride in the parade on Saturday morning after the balloon launch and display their winning poster. They will also receive a T-shirt and pin from this year’s festival.

The two grand prize winners will also receive a free one-hour balloon flight over Lewiston-Auburn during the festival with one other person of their choice, have their posters displayed throughout the festival at the souvenir booth and a sponsored Newspapers in Education subscription (enough newspapers for classroom use) for one year.

All poster paper will be provided by Harvest Hill Farms. Students will be responsible for their own coloring materials. Poster paper may be picked up at the following locations starting Monday, April 12: Harvest Hill Farms, 125 Pigeon Hill Road, Mechanic Falls; Sun Journal, 104 Park St.; Reeder Chiropractic Health Care, 625 Main St.

For further information regarding the contest, contact Taylor Theriault at luv2ridefast@myfairpoint.net or Mike Theriault mtheriault@sunjournal.com.