I don't know about how much food and drinks, since I was in charge of parent volunteers and wristband sales. Before our Fall Festival, we had pre-sales for wristbands at $10 and then $15 at the door. Once you brought the wristband, you had unlimited amount of time to play games and jump on the inflatables. So kids came to pick up their pre-paid wristbands, and then played for a few hours (we had it from 2-6 p.m.).

If I can remember we made over $2,000 which help cover the cost of the inflatables and use of the popcorn, cotton candy, and snow cone machines. We had about 7 inflatables. I think that the wristbands for all day is the easiest way to go, since you don't have to worry about loosing tickets, etc.

We did the games for each grade level, their parents were to volunteer to manned a grade specific game.I just had a hard time getting volunteers to manned the games. I was only asking for an hour of their time, but there still was some no-shows.

We had bingos, a cake/cookie walk, and then some homemade games(frog golf, fish pond type game, etc). We did rent some games that were outside..everything outside was rented, and everything that was inside was homemade.

What's the carnival excel program like? I used an excel spreadsheet to help organize the parent volunteers, and to create a phone list for each grade level. Is it like that?

:)rac

lhennessy..good luck and have fun at your carnival!!

can i also have a copy of the contest letter..TIA
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can i get a copy of the excel sheet too
my addy is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
TIA [img]smile.gif[/img]

Looking for a game that will really bring in the money for your cause?
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sorry did not realize the green smiley was sticking it's tounge out.
Janice

[img]smile.gif[/img] I would also like to have a copy of your plan. Thanks [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Janice


(I'm in my 4th year of running the school carnival, and here's my take on food, prizes, etc:

We have had much success with the following formula for food: plan on half the school attendance showing up, each with 2 parents or siblings (approx 750-800). Plan on feeding each of them 1.0 servings entree items (750-800 pizza/hot dogs, etc), and .25 servings of each side item (popcorn, nachos, cotton candy). Now plan on 2 sodas/drinks for each attendee. You do want to pretty much run low on food by the last hour or half hour, but put a backup plan in place (just in case all 500 students decide to show up and bring their extended family); have someone ready to pop out and pick up more hot dogs and soda.

As far as prizes go, I'm prone to buying prizes by the case at rock-bottom prices and keeping the extras over to the next year. Rhode Island Novelty has pretty awesome prices (not advertising here-I'm a customer, not an employee), but the cases can sometimes have 400-2000 of a single item, so make sure you have a storage place for the leftovers.

One thing we did last year with outstanding results was offer a presale $3.00 wristband for the inflatables that, when worn, entitled the wearer to unlimited inflatable rides. This kept the ticket line short and ensured that the kids had something to do when the parents' $$ ran low. Also, the presale of the wristbands ensured that the expense of hiring the inflatables was covered in advance.

I think I still have an Carnival Excel program that I wrote that uses formulas to compute attendance and how it affects how much to buy in food, prizes, candy and the like; If anyone reads this REALLY long post and wants a copy, I'll email it to you - LMK, but no email addresses in your post, please! Thanks!!)