We net b/n $15K-$20K on our Fall Festival. This is largely impart to our King/Queen-Prince/Princess Ceremony, we also have a ham supper and the last couple we've had a haunted house which makes nearly $1,000.00. This year there were several different games than in the past.
Our haunted house which was designed by our counselor was pretty gruesome (I told her she was trying to drum up business, ha ha). So for the more mello kids we had a laser room which has always been a hit for us. Lots of disco lights and dance music, I can't remember if it is .25 or .50 for 5 minutes. Most of our things are only .25. Plus we held a basket auction in addition to our popular prize/cake walk. We are a small rural low income school. We had maybe 6 volunteers. More offered but were turned down. Usually the only things that volunteers have done for the Fall Festival is get donations and help set up. The teachers pick the booths they want to work. This is one of the events they are required to work in order to receive their PTO money. And this year there were only about 6 or so booths (that is a whole other story!). We have it for 1 1/2 hours during the day and it runs for about 3 hours during the evening. Every child gets 2 tickets worth .25. We offer concessions during the day. Oh yeah, because our kids do not have art the first part of the year we've let them make crafts to sell. Those who do not want or are not able to buy theirs (we usually make them able ) are sold during the festival-big hit!
My dream is to have a committee and sub committees for this event. I think we can do it this year. One year when I was pres I tried this. I was the only one who signed up, along with my VP who ended up quiting a short time later.
Now we're talking!!! I do a haunted house in the back two rooms of our gym. We just use anything we can find. Face paint is much better than mask cause with the black lights it gets very hot. We made a grave yard using lumps of paper balled up under a black tarp covered with old cut grass, dirt, and moss. We cut our head stones out of cardboard or styrofoam and painted them with silver spraypaint(use florescent highlighters for making the names and sayings). We cut old bare tree limbs and put them in 5 gallon buckets full of dirt to simulate trees. Cut up some old two by fours to make a fence. I purchased bats from family dollar for about $3 each and hang them from the ceiling and they fly in a circle. Helium filled ballons with trash bags tied to make a ghost will float around the room on their own. For costumes, my neice used an old sheet that she marked up and sheared and put babypowder in her hair. She glowed!!! Some one else covered the whole face black except for the eyes and mouth with a white streak down the middle of his hair. He wore old jeans and t-shirt covered in fake blood and sheared. We also have a mad scientist with all kinds of creeped up food that the kids can put their hands in(love to watch their faces) this person wears a lab coat with splotches of woolite on it and large glasses, long gloves from a lab or rubber gloves. this year i added a big fridge box with someone inside that jumps out of a picture. very easy(e-mail if need info) make sure to check the stores after halloween as you can find decorations for nearly nothing. good luck. feel free to e-mail me if you need more info -- I love doing the haunted house.
You probably have all you need to know now but I wanted to tell about ours.
We are a K-12 PTO with most of the support coming from K-5. We have an Ice Cream Social each spring and we usually profit between $9-12,000. No where near our $25,000 profit from our fall catalog sales.
Anyway, if you have a Meijer in your area, check with them about sponsoring your event. They sponsor ours and they supply all of the ice cream, dishes and spoons. We have done this for 14 years so we have learned through trial and error. I wouldn't recommend a moon walk if you have a variety of ages. We use a blow up obstacle course. We paid for it ourselves but it brought in more than 4x what it cost us.
We have 30 games that belong to our PTO. One of the amazing moms in our district solicits all of the donations for prizes. Each game is one ticket ($.50) and everyone gets a prize. The better you do the better the prize. We give out very little candy as prizes since we want them to purchase the ice cream. I know one of the places we get a large amount of prizes from is Scholastic. We got over 2000 books from them at less than a quarter a peice. They were good books too, ones with $14.00 price tags. We also had about 40 items for a raffle that brought in $1500+. Our raffle tickets were sold $1/each 6/$5 or a wing span for $20. We offered an incentive to purchase the wing span.
I would also recommend having the Chrysler "art of driving" we raised over $800 from that alone. We do face painting, nail art, nachos, hot dogs etc. The kids really enjoy it.
The down side is...we need over 200 volunteers in the 4 hrs it's held. We manage every year but just by the skin of our teeth. Hope it helps a little...Best of luck.
I emailed a costume company who says they think they can help me. I asked for used and misused costumes, discontinued or worn out costumes, etc. I'll let everyone know how it goes.
Another option for donations is to get a letter on school letter head and go to garage sales. Tell them they can have a donation letter for donating costumes and decroations.
What I have personally unfortunately is called for by two different events. (Usually they are on the same day - that's quite the trick.)
Regarding carnivals: Yes, they are alot of work but we have held one at our school (k-5), 380 students. for at least 11 yrs. running so we have a system going I guess. We have it the week prior to easter and hold a FREE egg hunt at 10 a.m.(k-2) which gets the people there. they smell the food see the rides and usually have to stay!! i don't want to go into big details, but if interested or questions, please email me (subject carnival) and i will be glad to assist! MANDATORY RULES: volunteers! old story but they are much needed! 2) break things down into committees and focus on a leader for the committee. (WISE ADVICE!) Other than the egg hunt, there is food (large menu) I am chair for that group, go figure!! games about 12 with booths we made ourselves over the yrs! (good investment) rides ($$) but worth it. contracted out at start of school year. Raffle (all donated nice items from local merchants) send out chances with students 1 1/2 mos prior to carnival. 50/50 done day of carnival. and this yr. we added a silent auction. every grade level (there are 3 classes per grade) chose a theme and brought in donated item for this basket and we put together. It did good for a first time adn all that we purchased was a cooler to put stuff in for the "picnic" theme. use your imagination. We get all donations for the raffle and just watch costs for others. I ask donations for the food if possible,but not likely. alot of soda companies can help in some way so thats all clear profit. we probably clear 9-10,000.00. depends on weather and crowd. let me know if you need more details on any above, glad to assist! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
) are sold during the festival-big hit!