When our school has there carnival. The students pay at the door and buy tickets for .25 cents each. Then they play any game they want. Each booth is sponsor by different groups. Cheerleaders, Student Council, PTO, 4-H, Boy Scouts, Basketball team, Golf team, Baseball team, Track, etc. The groups set up their own booth, buy their own prizes, clean up their own area, charge what they want to play the game, and keep their own profit. We use the high school gym. It's a lot of fun and we have a good turn out.
I have been reading the different questions from the message board and I think I have a good solution for you. What if, you give out the wristbands (the ones that have to be cut off) as the kids enter (after paying) then, as they are leaving, give out "goodie bags" in exchange for the wristbands? This will keep your booths running smoothly during the event. Just have many people helping at the end.
Good Luck.
We charged for the cards this year but admission to the event was free. Last year we charged admission and gave the cards out with admission--worked out about the same--this year though it gave the kids a chance to buy another card for more prizes--last year it was one card per admission. Also helped us clear out alot of those extra prizes we had laying around because at least half the kids bought another card to get more stuff(junk) LOL!!
We use the punch card system at our last event and it worked rather well. We sold the cards for $2 each and it had 15 games on each card--which meant 15 prizes--the students or siblings could decide what 15 games they wanted to play and each time they played and got a prize the card was punched so when the card was full they could still play but not get a prize--if they wanted more prizes they had to purchase another card. Worked out well for us---plus some of our games were for the younger kids and the 4th graders didn't want to waste their time at that game so lettting them decide what 15 games to play worked out well for us.
What if you use the tear apart tickets you can get in rolls? Just give each child 10(or how ever many booths you have)when they come in the door. They might have a few who use all 10 at one game, but once their tickets are gone they wouldn't get anymore prizes.
when they pay their fee at the door, give them a punch card. if you have 10 booths, that's 10 squares on a punch card. if you have 20 booths, that's 20 punches. when they've visited a booth and get a prize, they get punched for that booth.
this lets them decide which booth they want to go to and which one worth visiting.
