1. The Guide will hit the streets this Friday, Aug. 5 and will be distributed all over Athens, the UGA campus and Oconee County all year long.

2. The Flagpole Guide to Athens is the only comprehensive guide to Athens and the surrounding area.

3. The Guide is the only source of detailed information about every local restaurant and bar—cuisine, decor, ambience, specialties, hours and days of operation, drinks, price range—everything you and your guests need to know in order to decide where you’d like to go.

4. The Guide includes detailed maps of Athens-Clarke County, downtown, the intown neighborhoods and the UGA campus.

5. Athens Favorites—the local restaurants, bars, stores and services picked by Flagpole readers—are listed in the Guide and designated in the writeups.

6. Every park and recreation facility in the Athens-Oconee area is listed with neat pictographs that tell you what you can find at each park, if you can decipher the symbols.

7. Every music venue, movie theater, live theater, book store, record store, museum, art gallery and performance center in town is listed and described.

8. There’s a section on do-it-yourself fun for hands-on adventures in getting out and getting involved and learning and making stuff. There’s a whole section on activities for kids; there’s a complete listing of lodging options and a rundown on all the farmers markets and food trucks in the area.

9. This Guide is truly brought to you by the staff of Flagpole magazine. Publisher and Advertising Director Alicia Nickles managed the overall effort and spent countless hours proofing and re-proofing the information, as did advertising reps Anita Aubrey, Jessica Mangum and Carey McLaughlin, who also sold all the ads. Office Manager Stephanie Rivers researched information and entered it into the Guide computer program. Production Director Larry Tenner designed and laid out the whole Guide and made the maps; Ad and Web Designer Kelly Hart constructed all the ads, and she oversees the Guide online. Arts Editor Jessica Smith wrote the art section and also directs Guide distribution, along with driver/manager Charles Greenleaf; News Editor Blake Aued compiled the front section facts about Athens, and Managing Editor/Music Editor Gabe Vodicka wrote the music info and edited and proofed the whole Guide—several times. Food writer Hillary Brown reviewed all the restaurants, and writer Kat Koury checked the bars, while theater writer Dina Canup did her thing and kids writer Kristen Morales lent her expertise. We only went outside Flagpole staff for the great photography that enlivens the Guide. Matt Hardy exercised his considerable skills with the camera, abetted by our superhero models Derek Adams, Scarlett Alston, Juli Bierwirth, Megan Dunn and Samone Pittman.

10. Local businesses you need to know are highlighted through their advertising, which also makes the Flagpole Guide to Athens possible. Think of this Guide as a partnership between Flagpole and some of the coolest businesses in town.