Sorry, this answer is very long, but you might find something good in it.

We are a small private school (175 kids, most pre-k to 3rd grade). We decided to have a carnival this year instead of the evening adult fundraising thing because parents of very young children don't seem to want to come out for those events. We thought this would work better to have something family oriented.

We are still having a silent auction at the carnival, with art objects (e.g., painted benches) painted by the classes, theme baskets put together by the homeroom moms with donations from the parents, and dontations from parents and community. In addition to the games, we are having crafts that cost tickets, and a rented moonbounce that cost tickets (moonbounce rents for about $300 but we are pretty sure we will make money on this).

We didn't hire any performers, but a dance school, a dance group, a karate school, and a gymnastics school are all doing exhibitions for free. We also have some kid and parent "talent" so the stage will be busy most of the day.

We have about 10 vendors that are going to have booths, e.g., tupperware, longaberger baskets, art, etc. Instead of a booth fee, they negotiated a percentage of their profits for the day would go to the school.

What else...oh, bake sale as well as lunch and snacks.

If you parents are reticent to spend money, this might not work, but our school got a lot of money a few years back when they were doing a big addition by having parents buy tiles for $25 each -- the tiles were painted by the kids or families and signed and then, after glazing, a wall was decorated in the new addition with all the tiles. (We have a do-it-yourself pottery place nearby that helped coordinate this.) We are building a boardwalk through a nature path on the property now and are going to do the same kind of things with boards, where families can donate $25 and have their own board in the boardwalk.

And how successful? I don't know. It is in 8 days, so I will let you know the end of the month. We are still scrambling to get enough manpower to run all the things. The problem with having so many small kids in a school is that many of the kids can't be off on their own, so we need the second parent to be helping while the first one watches the kids, and that isn't always possible.

I've been reading these posts for awhile and you guys really have some good discussions. I have a situation which I need some help with. Our principal came to me yesterday and asked if the parents could raise $7,000? Well we haven't been able to raise that much money all year long, actually in the last 3 years. We are a small charter school and the parents don't seem to be accustomed to giving towards their child's education. Fundraisers haven't gone very well. So I started to think about a carnival, since its nearing the end of school. I'm pretty sure that I could round up enough parents to volunteer for the games (they will give time, but not money). But I was wondering, if anyone had added other attractions to their carnivals in addition to the regular games, like paid clowns, magic acts, and things like that. I think that we really need an attraction that that would bring in people from the community. Please help. I need to hear the pros and cons here before I approach the principal with this idea.