This is a list of things we plan to include at the fall festival.  First are items that are definitely planned for the night, followed by items that are still "maybes" at this point.  I am MORE than open to suggestions.  If you have ideas of other things that can be added that will make more money without a lot more cost - those items are ideal.  If you dislike any of the current ideas and plans, I'd love your feedback as well.  We want this to be successful and welcome any suggestions or comments - good or bad!

 

The current lineup includes:

 

GAMES OF COURSE!!!    Click HERE for a list of planned and possible games

 

PRIZES     You can't have games without prizes - candy and small typical game prizes, with a few bigger items costing more tickets

 

FOOD    The menu will be pretty simple.  Hot dogs, chips, soda, water, some kind of juice boxes.    And also a baked sale... so cupcakes, cookies, etc...

 

TATTOO PARLOR    Temporary tattoos, of course

 

FACE PAINTING     A MUST for any fine festival

 

BINGO      The intention is to have adult & kid prizes so everyone can join in

 

CAKE WALK   Gotta love a cake walk - who doesn't love cake!!  And adults wanna have fun too!

 

STUFFED ANIMAL WALK   Similar to the cake walk, but for the kids, win gently used & sanitized stuffed animals (closet clean out opportunity!)

 

BALLOON ANIMALS  Thanks to a friend of Linnea's generously volunteering their time

 

 

 

POSSIBLE OTHER ACTIVITIES.  The following items may or may not be added depending on if we can get donations of some items, cost involved, and in some cases just depending on the number of volunteers we have.  The more we have going on = the more fun the kids have = the more money they spend = the more money we make, but also = the more help we need to run everything.

 

 

Hair dye station - just the spray cans of various bright colors you can do solid or stripes or whatever.   Trying to balance how much the kids will love it against how much the parents will hate me when it's rubbing off on their kids' clothes and seats of the car!

 

Music recording station.  Linnea is working on this.  great idea if we can put it all together.  Will have a room with a karaoke machine and the kids' singing will be recorded and burned onto a CD as a permanent souvenir!  She has a friend that can likely provide equipment and burn them on the spot.

 

Photo booth.  Thinking of several ways to do it.  Have some ideas though.  The biggest factors are the cost of "dress up" items (I'd like it to be circus-y stuff like clown, strong man, lion & elephant parts) and how to get the photos.  If we charge for the photo  booth we need to provide photos.  I've thought of someone taking digital pics and email them to the parents but if kids are running around by themselves it's not likely we'll get accurate contact info.  I'm still working on this.  Suggestions are welcome.

 

Bounce house.  Subject to full or partial donation.  Full cost is close to $100 for 1 day which would really cut into our expenses and most likely would be something we'd only come close to breaking even on rather than making any money. Although it would be one more thing to draw people to the festival in the first place. So I'm undecided.  If we could get one donated that would help. Going to reach out to some rental places and offer a spot with flyers, business cards, etc... in exchange for donating the use of the bounce house so it is a great advertising opportunity for them.  If anyone knows someone they can convince to accept this offer, PLEASE feel free to ask (or beg).

 

Snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn.  Again, I'd love to have any or all of these, but I don't think we can justify the full price rental.  I'm going to look for someone to donate, even if they partly donate and we can pay half price or something.  Or if someone will loan us the equipment up front and pay after the event once we've made the money to cover it.  I'm thinking of ways to make this work.  Welcome any help on making this happen!!

 

Crafts.  Thinking of having an area with crafts.  Maybe sand art and one or 2 other simple to do and not too costly crafts.  We'd charge a nominal fee, probably a couple of game tickets.  The main deterrents to this plan are that although the kids would have fun, it would cost a bit to order supplies up front, and also it is a station that will probably create a lot mess to clean up.  If we have enough funding for the supplies and enough volunteers to man another station for 3 hours, this could be included.

 

 

Basket raffles.  Great because you can have a variety of baskets so there's something that appeals to everyone.  And people love them.  We can make some that appeal to kids and some to adults so everyone can participate.  The main draw back, as always, is the cost up front to implement it.  This could work out if some family members have items they can donate.  Christmas gifts you never used and probably won't ever use, would go well in a raffle basket.  We may be able to barter a few gift certificate or other donations out of businesses - we can put a poster somewhere thanking anyone who donated to the carnival in any way and give them advertising as well as acknowledge them in the individual basket.  If we can combine some donated items and maybe add some small items from a dollar store or such as filler to make them look like there's a lot in them, this could be profitable.  If anyone knows of any place willing to donate something for our raffle baskets, that would be great, and then we'd definitely include these in the night's plans.

 

50/50 raffle.  This is basically a no cost addition so the only draw back is how much else we end up having planned.  Just don't want too much going on to the point that people can't possibly do it all (time or cost wise) so only a handful of people do each individual thing and we end up not making much money on certain things we do.  We could plan enough stuff that parents could spend $200 for a night of fun and meriment for their kids, but they aren't likely to do so.  The kids will want to do EVERYTHING so we have to plan things so there is a balance - plenty for everyone to do, but still be able to stay within a reasonable budget for a night of fun.  Otherwise the money will all get spent on the kids and there won't be any money left for parents to do something like this or other raffles that they may enjoy.    Aside from that there's really no reason not to do it.  Don't even need someone extra to run a booth, the tickets could be sold at the ticket booth for the games.