As an added note, last year we had ticket sales of over $6300 @ .20 ticket. We spent about $2000 for our prizes. Before I was involved they used to spend about $500-$600 on prizes. We've found the more you invest in prizes, the more our ticket sales increased. Our carnival is open to the public and we get alot of families outside of our district because it is such a fun event.
We award tokens, like gold coins, at each game. They buy tickets for .20 each and all games are 1 or 2 tickets. They will always get 1 token for playing and anywhere from 2-5 for winning. Our prize booth is set up in the gym and we offer prizes from 1 to 30 tokens. The last 4 years we have bought our prizes from Rhode Island Novelty. We found their prices were better that Oriental Trading. Our 1-5 token range was usually candy which we purchased at Sams. Our highest token amount was usually a large inflatable or lamp.
We are going to use a new system instead of tickets. We are using a punch card with 10 numbered squares to punch -- each punch/square worth 50 cents (card value $5). This is for all food and game purchases at the carnival. While we still use less costly prizes, we try to use more involved activities (inflatables and such) so that there are less of the "junky" prizes that are afforable for our budget.
After being very frustrated with the quality of prizes my chilren were getting, when it was my turn to run the carnival, we went to a redemption system. We use one color of ticket to purchase everything and another color of ticket to buy prizes. The only games that give out prizes are the lollipop tree, cake walk, and pencil in a hay stack. Everything else gives out prize tickets, some according to skill. We have a room setup for prizes and things range from 1 to 100 tickets. This has worked very well for the last 3 years. Prizes include everything from mini candy bars to 5 foot inflatable monkeys. If you want some ideas, try www.orientaltrading.com. They have a whole bunch of information on carnivals, games, prizes, setup, and coordination.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
We are first timers on a revived carnival from before we were all here. Do you do prize redemption booths? How do you handle it. We are thinking of charging 50 cents a ticket for most booths. The booths would either have an activity, then win a vey small prize or a prize redemption ticket. Some booths would have tiered prizes, so you could win more than one ticket. Is this too convulted. What should the redemption booth prizes be? We thought of buying a bunch of bruised books from Scholastic, trying to get businesses to donate frisbees, water bottles (you know the kinds of promotional things they give away), etc. Can someone help us sort this out? Thanks
