SJmom-- No, we didn't charge a different price at the event. We just used the incentive of the exclusive "pre-buy raffle of 4 Sesame Street Live tickets". I think the parents were happy not to have to spend so much that evening. They were able to buy the carnival cards and raffle tickets ahead of time (being able to spread the expense over more pay periods. Then all they had to worry about spending money on food and possibly the auction. We did around $2300 just in the auction and sold a ton of raffle tickets ($1 ea, 12 for $10 or 25 for $20). We had so much to give away that we were drawing out for prizes at least every 5 min. from 5:15-8 pm. We drew out the ticket for the Sesame Street Live passes at 7:30. I think it also helped that we closed the auction in sections. For example all the items on the red table closed at 7:30, yellow table at 7:45 and orange table at 8 pm.

Something else I was working on, but didn't get it pulled together in time... McDonald's will give you coupons for free Happy Meals. My sister is an area manager for McD in NY and told me to ask for 250 or so Happy Meal coupons from either the owner (if it's a franchised McD) or the area mgr. She said they are usually very happy to do so. I wanted to offer a free Happy Meal coupon for every $5 carnival card pre-sold or 2 HM coupons for every $10 carnival card pre-sold. I didn't want to offer discounts on the food at the carnival as an incentive since that would cut into our food sales.

Also... if you have a Coca Cola bottling/distribution plant in your area, you can get their food trailer for free for your event if you purchase your soda from them. They should give you special school pricing for that. They will deliver the trailer and the soda the day of the event for use. It sure comes in handy if the wind picks up! You would need to contact their Special Events person. We did this and it was wonderful!

Holly

Holly, did you sell the punch cards at the event for a higher price?

Wow! Such great ideas from everyone posting! Much appreciated!

Howdy,

We just held our spring carnival on April 8. It ran 5-8 and was a huge success. We typically make $1000 on the carnival. WELL... this year with the help of some changes I pushed for, we made $5000! Whew-who!!

For the games, we offered a bowling game, golf game, duck pond, face painting, sand art, tattoos, ping pong ball toss, plinko, lollipop tree, hair coloring,& cake walk. Each activity had a different punch amount from 1-3 punches.
I hate those dang tickets! So, we made up Gordy Carnival Cards. These are essentially punch cards. They sold for $5 (20 punches) or $10 (40 punches + 4 bonus punches). I pre-sold these for one month (ending the day before the carnival). I pre-sold almost 100 cards with the majority of them being the $10 card. Our school has a student population of 685 and is VERY econimically diverse. As an incentive to pre-buy the carnival cards, we had 4 tickets to Sesame Street Live donated for the raffle/silent auction, so we offered an exclusive raffle for those SS tickets only for those folks that pre-purchased their carnival cards. If they pre-bought the $5 card they received 1 blue raffle ticket back with their carnival card, if they pre-purchased the $10 card then they received 2 blue raffle tickets. You can always try to get a donation from a popular b-day party place (like Pump It Up or Mad Science) and use that as your incentive. Most parents would love to have a free b-day party for their kid. I filled the orders as they came in and returned them with the child for their parent.

I also pre-sold raffle tickets (red) for the regular raffle for the evening of the carnival. We offered a Market Place this year during our carnival. For the fee of $25 a business (Mary Kay, Karate, CTMH, local jewelry store, a couple candle reps, etc) they got 1 table and 2 chairs. This was set up to the side of the carnival games. We offered a free spot to the police dept. and Boys & Girls Club.

With the pre-sell in raffle tickets, carnival cards and market place vendors we were at $1400 before the carnival even happened. We had only cash for the food. This was the first year they had a silent auction. We received over 150 donations and used these for both the raffle and silent auction. We made $5000+ on our carnival activities this year which is a 5 times as much as they did last year.

If anyone would like to see the flyers or cards we used, feel free to email me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Good Luck,
Holly

I think most parents have a set amount they plan on spending at an event. Once they reach it they most likely go home. A majority of what we do for our carnival is donated so every penny is profit. We only charge 25 cents for each ticket and no booth is over $1.00. We plan to charge $10.00 for a wristband, which is equivalant to 40 tickets. Most of the families(of 4) bought no more than 50 tickets, so we should do just fine if they only get a wristband for the kids. By doing the wristband you will save time from counting so many tickets and should help with ticket booth lines. Plus the children can go on as many bouncy things as they want as many times as they want.

I actually think we will do BETTER with the wristbands. We had very few people spend $10.00 per child, but would pay $5.00 or $6.00. I'm hoping they will spend a little more this year (although I will discount for presales).

The wristbands are convenient, but would you make as much money?