2027 NC 4th of July Festival T-Shirt Design Contest

🎆 2027 NC 4th of July Festival T-Shirt Design Contest

We're looking for an original, creative design that captures the spirit of the NC 4th of July Festival!

Your artwork could become the official festival artwork for 2027, appearing on festival T-shirts and potentially other festival-related promotional materials and merchandise.

Whether you're a professional artist, a hobbyist, a photographer, a graphic designer, or simply someone with a great idea—we want to see what you've got!

📅 Deadline
December 1, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.

Entries received after the deadline may not be considered.

💰 Entry Fee
$10 per design submission

Entry fees are non-refundable, including if an entry is rejected or disqualified.

🎨 What Can You Create?
We're open to creativity!

Your submission may be created using:

• Photography
• Graphic design
• Painting
• Drawing or illustration
• Digital artwork
• Or any combination of these mediums

The only requirement is that your final submission works as a T-shirt design. Think about how your artwork will look when printed on a shirt—including its composition, colors, size, readability, and overall visual impact.

📁 Submission Requirements

1. Each design requires a $10 entry fee.
2. You may submit as many designs as you would like.
3. Each design must be submitted individually and requires its own $10 entry fee.
4. Only one design may be uploaded per submission.
5. Your final design must be submitted as a high-resolution .PNG file.
6. Designs should be at least 3000 × 3000 pixels. A transparent background is encouraged when appropriate.
7. Your design must be original to you.
8. AI may not be used in the creation of your final design.
9. Any copyrighted, trademarked, or third-party material used in your design must be properly authorized

🤖 Important: No AI
This is an original artwork contest, and we want to see what you can create.

The use of generative AI or AI-assisted tools in creating your submitted artwork is prohibited. This includes AI image generators, AI-generated artwork, AI-assisted artwork, generative fill, and similar tools used to create or materially contribute to the final design.

Normal digital design software is absolutely fine—we're not banning Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, etc.

If AI is determined to have been used in the creation of a submitted design, the design will be disqualified. This rule may also be enforced after a design has been selected as the winner.

🏆 What Does the Winner Get?
The winning artist will receive:

• Official recognition as the 2027 NC 4th of July Festival T-Shirt Design Contest winner
• Serious bragging rights
• A free T-shirt featuring their winning design
• The honor of having their artwork become part of the 2027 festival!

The winning artist will be notified by email following the December 2026 NC 4th of July Festival Board of Directors meeting.

Artist Bio Requirement: If selected as the winning artist, the artist will be required to submit an approximately 250-word biography/about-the-artist write-up for potential inclusion in the July issue of COAST Magazine. The biography must be submitted to the NC 4th of July Festival no later than May 1, 2027, and the artist is responsible for providing the requested content by that deadline.

Artist Optional Appearance:
The winning artist will have the opportunity to attend the First Friday Gallery Walk at the Southport Community Building on March 5, 2027. The winning artist will be invited to meet and greet festival supporters and community members, share their creative process, and set up a table to showcase their work. Participation is completely optional and is offered as an opportunity to connect with the community and celebrate the artist behind the 2027 festival artwork.

👀 Looking for Inspiration?
Check out examples of past festival designs here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/15eG5GreC9KzgdA_HboG2nwuF24ltFpcz?usp=drive_link

These examples are simply here to give you an idea of the types of artwork that have been featured in the past. We want to see your creativity—not a copy of what has already been done!

Ready to make your mark?

Submit your design and show us what the 2027 NC 4th of July Festival looks like to you!

By submitting an entry to the 2027 NC 4th of July Festival T-Shirt Design Contest ("Contest"), you acknowledge that you have read, understood, and agree to these Terms & Conditions.

1. Eligibility
The Contest is open to anyone.

There is no geographic residency requirement to enter.

2. Entry Period & Deadline
Entries must be submitted by:

December 1, 2026 at 11:59 p.m.

Entries received after the deadline may not be considered.

The NC 4th of July Festival reserves the right to extend, modify, or close the submission period if circumstances require.

3. Entry Fee
The entry fee is $10 per design submission.

The entry fee is non-refundable, including in circumstances where an entry is rejected, disqualified, withdrawn, submitted incorrectly, or not selected as the winning design.

4. Multiple Entries
Entrants may submit as many designs as they would like.

Each design must be submitted separately and requires a separate $10 entry fee.

Only one design may be uploaded with each individual submission.

5. Design & File Requirements
Entries may consist of photography, graphic design, painting, drawing, illustration, digital artwork, or any combination of these mediums.

All final submissions must:

Be submitted as a .PNG file;
Be at least 3000 × 3000 pixels;
Be of sufficient quality for reproduction on a T-shirt;
Be original to the entrant; and
Comply with all other requirements contained in these Terms & Conditions.
A transparent background is encouraged when appropriate but is not required.

The NC 4th of July Festival may request a higher-resolution version, original working file, or other production-ready file from the winning entrant if necessary for printing or other uses.

6. Originality & Ownership
Each submitted design must be original to the entrant.

By submitting a design, the entrant represents and warrants that:

They created the design themselves;
They have the legal right to submit the design;
The design does not infringe upon another person's copyright, trademark, publicity rights, privacy rights, or other intellectual property rights;
They have obtained all necessary permissions for photographs, artwork, fonts, graphics, logos, or other third-party materials incorporated into the design; and
The submission does not contain unauthorized festival branding or other protected material.
The entrant is solely responsible for ensuring that their submission does not violate the rights of another person or organization.

7. Artificial Intelligence Prohibition
Artificial intelligence may not be used in the creation of a submitted design.

This prohibition includes, but is not limited to:

Generative AI;
AI image generators;
AI-generated artwork;
AI-assisted artwork;
AI-generated illustrations;
Generative fill;
AI image manipulation or generation;
AI tools used to materially create or alter artwork; and
Similar technologies used to create or materially contribute to the final design.
The use of ordinary digital creative software, including programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Procreate, Canva, or similar software, is permitted, provided that AI-generated or AI-assisted content is not used in the creation of the submitted design.

By submitting an entry, the entrant certifies that AI was not used in creating the final submitted design.

If the NC 4th of July Festival determines that AI was used in the creation of an entry, that entry may be disqualified immediately, including after the entry has been selected as the winning design.

The Festival reserves the right to request information concerning the creation process of a submitted design if questions arise regarding compliance with this rule.

8. Third-Party Materials
Entrants are responsible for obtaining appropriate permission or licensing for any third-party materials used in their designs.

This includes, but is not limited to:

Photographs;
Artwork;
Illustrations;
Fonts;
Graphics;
Logos;
Trademarks;
Stock images; and
Other copyrighted or protected materials.
Unauthorized use of third-party material may result in disqualification.

9. Festival Branding
Entrants may not use the NC 4th of July Festival's logos, trademarks, copyrighted artwork, or other protected festival materials without authorization.

Entries that improperly use festival branding may be rejected or disqualified.

10. Content Restrictions
All submissions must be appropriate for a public community festival and suitable for use on festival merchandise and promotional materials.

The Festival reserves the right to reject or disqualify any design containing, in its sole discretion:

Obscene or sexually explicit content;
Hate speech or discriminatory content;
Content promoting violence or illegal activity;
Defamatory content;
Material that is unlawful or infringes upon another person's rights;
Unauthorized political campaign material;
Unauthorized third-party branding or trademarks; or
Any other content the Festival determines to be inappropriate for the NC 4th of July Festival.

11. Judging
Entries will be judged by the NC 4th of July Festival Board of Directors.

Judging will be based on the Board's overall impression of each submission, including factors such as:

Creativity;
Originality;
Overall visual appeal;
Festival spirit;
Connection to the 4th of July;
Suitability for a T-shirt;
Overall "vibe";
What the Board feels the festival needs or would benefit from; and
The Board's overall preference for the design.
This is intentionally a creative contest, and judging is not based on a rigid scoring formula.

The Board of Directors' decision is final, except that a winning entry may be disqualified if it is later determined that the entry violated the Contest's rules or eligibility requirements.

The Festival reserves the right to not select a winner if the Board determines that no submission is appropriate or suitable for the Contest.

12. Winner
The winning artist will receive:

Recognition as the winner of the 2027 NC 4th of July Festival T-Shirt Design Contest;
A free T-shirt featuring the winning design; and
The associated bragging rights of creating the official 2027 festival artwork.
There is no cash prize.

The winner will be notified by email following the December 2026 Festival Board of Directors meeting.

The winning artist may also be publicly identified and credited in connection with the artwork.

13. Use of Winning Artwork
The winning design will be used as the official festival artwork for 2027.

By submitting an entry, the entrant grants the NC 4th of July Festival a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use the winning design for festival-related purposes.

This license includes the right to:

Reproduce the design;
Print the design on T-shirts and other merchandise;
Display the design;
Publish the design;
Use the design on websites and social media;
Use the design in advertising and promotional materials;
Use the design on signs, programs, publications, and other festival materials;
Resize, crop, format, recolor, or otherwise modify the design as reasonably necessary;
Incorporate the design into other festival-related materials; and
Continue using the design in subsequent years for festival-related purposes.
The Festival may use the winning design without additional compensation to the artist beyond the prize described in these Terms & Conditions.

The artist retains ownership of the original artwork and copyright, subject to the license granted to the Festival above.

14. Design Revisions & Production
The NC 4th of July Festival and/or its selected T-shirt printing company reserve the right to make reasonable revisions or modifications to the winning design as necessary for printing, production, sizing, formatting, color reproduction, placement, or other practical purposes.

Such revisions may be made without additional approval from or compensation to the artist.

15. Non-Winning Entries
Non-winning submissions will be retained by the NC 4th of July Festival for its records.

The Festival will not use, reproduce, sell, publish, or otherwise commercially utilize a non-winning design without first contacting the artist and obtaining appropriate permission.

Ownership of non-winning designs remains with the respective artists.

16. Artist Credit
The winning artist may be publicly credited by name in connection with the winning artwork, including on festival websites, social media, promotional materials, merchandise, or other festival-related communications.

The Festival may request the artist's preferred name for crediting purposes.

17. Disqualification & Rejection
The Festival reserves the right to reject or disqualify any submission that:

Does not meet the submission requirements;
Is submitted after the deadline;
Is not original to the entrant;
Uses unauthorized third-party material;
Uses prohibited AI-generated or AI-assisted content;
Contains unauthorized festival branding;
Contains prohibited or inappropriate content;
Contains false or misleading information;
Does not include the required entry fee; or
Otherwise violates these Terms & Conditions.
Entry fees will not be refunded for rejected or disqualified entries.

18. Technical Issues
The Festival is not responsible for submissions that are lost, corrupted, incomplete, unreadable, improperly uploaded, or not received due to technical problems, internet connectivity issues, platform failures, or other circumstances beyond the Festival's reasonable control.

Entrants are responsible for confirming that their submission has been successfully completed.

19. Changes or Cancellation
The NC 4th of July Festival reserves the right to modify, suspend, extend, or cancel the Contest if circumstances beyond its reasonable control require such action.

20. Agreement
By submitting an entry, the entrant confirms that:

They have read and agree to these Terms & Conditions;
Their design is original to them;
They have the necessary rights and permissions for all elements of their design;
They did not use AI in creating the submitted design;
They understand that the entry fee is non-refundable;
They understand that the winning design will become the official 2027 festival artwork and may be used in subsequent years; and
They agree to the rights and permissions granted to the NC 4th of July Festival under these Terms & Conditions.
By submitting an entry, you agree to be bound by these Terms & Conditions.