My first festival, any suggestions. Help

[b]Hello everyone

Well on April 7th I will be doing my first big event. Its going to be for my YMCA easter egg hunt, I will be the only face painter there and I wanted to know how much should i charge the kids. I usually chargefrom $3,to $5, $7, $10 maybe $15, but this event im going to I paid $100 dollars from 9am to 1pm and I dont want to be there all day trying to get back just my money you know. So I was thinking that lowest would be $7 dollars and the highest $15. What do you guys think. I have pictures on my profile so if you needed to see what i did and you guys can give me suggestions that would be great. Thank you so much. I hope you guys can help.

Xena

We usually do $5 and $10, but if you think your area can handle it, go for it... you could always lower it a bit if you aren't getting anyone coming, but you can't raise it if you're swamped. The other good thing I find with $5 and $10 is that there's no single dollars involved... maybe not so big a deal for you guys since it's still paper, but our $1 and $2 are coins and I hate giving change in coins.

If you want to make $60.00 per hour (an average face paint rate) then you will have to make $85.00 an hour to pay yourself back the booth fee in that short amount of time. You will have to make $1.95 a minute so that will be your price point so basically $10.00 for a full 5 minute face.

If you aren't trying to make money but hand out cards to as many moms as possible, then do a very limited Easter board and get as many kids as possible through your line and see money you make past the $100 as gravy.

Will they let you be a sponsor of the Easter egg hunt and put your card in a goodie bag?

Good luck!

D.

Why not have the "Y" pay you...just did an easter egg hunt this week for one here. They can recoup by charging the kids if they like, and you don't have to be bothered with cash, you can just paint...

Hey Anniel,
I wish they did that. But the Y wants to make there money. They bring alot of vendors to this event. I'm glad I'm the only painter.

Tku Perry n Denise. Great response.

I used to be the YMCA's "exclusive" face painter in my town and that was when I only did cheek art (uggh!). Then, they decided to just use someone in house who volunteered (and most likely used acrylics) because they couldn't afford me in the budget.... for Pete's sake, I was charging an almost obscenely low fee.... I find it hard to believe they couldn't afford me...

Miss Ronnie,

This Y is not about giving money away, they realy want you either pay for the booth and not them pay you. When I saw the application there where two other lines saying you want to put a booth up its either donate 90% of your profits and dont pay the $100.00 fee or be a non profits organization. lol I was like oh no, I rather make some money and get my name out there so I can book some parties.
Xena

I'm painting at a crazy Easter Eggstravaganza, and by crazy I mean every kid in town under 12. I'm not doing PPF as I have been hired by the City, but we are going to limit the design selection to fast Easter themed designs.

I'm thinking six fairly unisex designs at this point:

- Easter Skull
- Easter Butterfly
...

You get the idea....

Hey Shannon,

I hear u. That's what I have to think about to.
Thanks

So how was the event? What happened?