The Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce is in search of a collector — one with the biggest collection of Washington Summer Festival T-shirts.

The contest is sponsored by the chamber; the winner will receive all sorts of goodies: a gift basket, a free 2013 Summer Festival T-shirt, free ice cream at the festival and other prizes, according to Catherine Glover, executive director of the chamber.

All one has to do is dig through closets and drawers and come up with the T-shirts representing as many years of the festival as possible.

“It’s the 30^th year of the summer festival … it’s a big year,” Glover said. “We thought it would be neat to the see the collectors’ shirts.”

The T-shirt contest isn’t the only new part of the coming festival: new hours, new entertainment options and a return trip by the North Carolina Symphony to the Washington waterfront are scheduled for the anniversary event, Glover said.

Slated for June 7­–9, the Summer Festival will feature ProTown BMX, a group of BMX riders from Greenville, putting on several stunt shows, as well as an encore performance Sunday evening by the symphony.

“The symphony loved being here, loved the layout of Festival Park, loved the audience,” Glover said. “So they actually contacted us and said they wanted to come back.”

The orchestra performed last September as part of Beaufort County’s 300^th-anniversary celebration. With the sponsorship of PotashCorp-Aurora, it’ll return June 9.

Glover said while this year’s entertainment choices might be expanding to suit a broader range of participants, the hours would be scaled back.

“It’s a family friendly event, and we’re going to wrap things up and be done by 9 p.m., at the latest,” Glover explained.

To keep busy until the actual date arrives, Summer Festival fans can stack their past festival T-shirts and bring them by the chamber for an accounting. The T-shirt contest runs until March 22.

The Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce is located at 102 Stewart Parkway and is open Mondays through Fridays from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m.