One of the most popular school events can be the spring fun fair/carnival. It brings the community together in a spirit of fun. In my experience, this can be the most positive event of the year as well as the most challenging with a lot of details and logistics to work out. To make it successful and not too much work for one person, it is beneficial at the beginning of the school year to establish the “school fun fair/carnival committee”. Tis gives the committee lots of time to plan and a better chance for a successful event.
Before taking the necessary steps to execute the steps to a successful event, it is important to determine as a council what the goals are (i.e., Is it to raise funds or simply have a community event?).
Understanding the goal will help you make decisions regarding costs, ticket prices, food costs etc. If you want to raise money, you may want to charge a little more for tickets or add a small levy to the cost of the food being served.
The key factor in having a successful event is to understand how many people you expect to attend (if this is an annual event, use the past few years as a guideline to how many you estimate attending this year). Using these numbers and the established price of a ticket, you can now estimate how much money you can spend on games, inflatables and food. You may choose to sell individual tickets or wristbands for all activities depending on the amount of funds you wish to raise and how much the community will spend that will give everyone a good time and feel positive about the event.
PLANNING STEPS AND TIPS
LOCATION AND TIMING
Most school fun fair/carnivals are able to be hosted on the school property which saves the cost of paying for a location. If not, you may be able to get a permit for a city park or church property, however this usually comes at a cost. The other important factor of hosting the event
offsite is the likelihood of having to provide additional insurance which also comes at a cost.
When you choose a date for the event always be sure to have a “rain date” alternative which you communicate with the community when promoting the event. This will help parents plan for both days if a change is required.
It is also beneficial to be aware of the local sports schedule that may make it impossible for parents to attend. A quick survey of the school community offering alternative dates can assist in choosing a date that will allow the majority of the school community to attend.
EVENT DAY VOLUNTEERS
Before committing to hosting a fun fair/carnival make sure that you have enough volunteers to set up games, sell tickets, sell food, supervise other activities like rafes, supervise infatables etc. It is disappointing to spend months planning an event and fnd out that you only have 5 people willing to volunteer for jobs that need 20 people. Not only does this make it difcult for the volunteers, but ofen unsafe for the children attending.
Having volunteer t-shirts made up in a single colour so attendees will know who they can go to for assistance if needed will help keep things organized. Alternatively, consider asking all volunteers to wear a single bright colour which will also help identify them for the community.
Don’t get surprised, get parent and student volunteers committed early.
GAMES AND PRIZES
There are a lot of companies who rent carnival style games for this type of event. However, to save money, it is fun and worthwhile to get parent volunteers to make games. Simple games like fish pond, football throw, bean bag tic tac toe, balloon darts, hula hoop contest are easy for parents to create themselves. Consider having a contest, with students as judges, for the best homemade game and encourage all parents to participate alone or in a team.
Setting up a scavenger hunt inside the school can be a fun activity for students and is an opportunity for parents (especially those new to the school) to see the whole school.
One of the popular money making games is the “pie in the face” game with the Principal or a favourite teacher as the target. When the weather is nice, substitute the pie for a water balloon.
Old fashion games like the “three legged race” or the “potato sack race” are still crowd pleasers and are a great way for parents and students participating together as a team.
Prizes can be bought at a low cost by buying a bag of small items at a wholesale party supply store. It may be fun to involve the students by having them make paper “medals” for the first, second and third place winners for race games and paper bookmarks for games like the
fish pond, tic tac toe etc.
Te more involvement the school community has in preparing for the event, the more likely they will encourage their families to attend.
ACTIVITIES
Inflatable rides and games are popular fun fair/carnival activities, but can cost a lot of money. Consider approaching a local business to sponsor a ride or game and have the students create a banner thanking them for their contribution which can be posted at the inflatable.
To bring some music and colour to the event, the local secondary school may volunteer to have their marching band or cheerleaders perform at the fun fair/carnival. In some communities a local radio station may agree to broadcast from the event and provide the music.
Hosting a silent auction is a great way to raise additional funds that only requires those interested in the prizes to contribute. By establishing the fun fair/carnival committee early in the year, it gives time to approach local businesses to contribute a prize. Gift certificates from theatres, restaurants, grocery stores etc. make great prizes and often something families can use for everyday activities. You may even get the city’s sports teams to donate things like signed game balls, posters etc. that can raise a good amount of money.
Face painting is another popular activity for children. It may be possible to engage a local “clown” who can set up to do face painting and balloon animals. If you find it difficult to find someone to do this, think about approaching the local party supply store because they probably know people in the area who come in for “clown” supplies.
MONEY MANAGEMENT
Thought should be given to how money will be managed at this type of event. You might consider setting up an online payment system and selling event bracelets which gets people admittance and ride/game play for the day. This eliminates having to have change on hand and counting of cash. This system can also be set up so people purchase a bracelet that includes all activities including a meal (like a hamburger and drink per band).
If you chose to operate on a cash basis you need to create a system that requires the least number of people to handle the money. You could have a ticket booth where people buy tickets for games, rides and food. This eliminates the need to have every ride or game operator collecting, giving change and counting money.
If you do have a ticket booth, arrange for an hourly count and remove the cash from the booth to a school safe if possible. Keeping a record each hour of the amount of money collected will help with the final balancing of the books at the end of the event. Two people should be assigned to count money every time it is removed from the ticket booth in order to keep the process transparent to the community.
SAFETY FIRST
Te goal of a fun fair/carnival is for the children to have fun. Even though there will be plenty of adults present, you may consider having a Red Cross representative in an official capacity to oversea in the case of an emergency. This can usually be arranged through you local Red Cross organization. This also makes the community feel safer.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO REMEMBER IS TO HAVE FUN PLANNING, EXECUTING AND PARTICIPATING IN YOUR SCHOOL EVENT!
