HELP -- Face Painting in Potential Cold Fall Whether

Here is my dilema:

I'm thinking about renting a booth in where I will be doing face painting and my husband will be selling kids novelty items. It will be a Fall Pumpkin Festival in October [Fri-Sat-Sun] in an affluent suburb of Chicago [very high end place with a lot of discretionary income by parents].

The place where the Festival is off Lake Michigan and I anticipate it being somewhat cold since its by the lake. My concern is that the 10 x 10 booth fee is $400 and I"m not sure if a lot of kids will be wanting their face painted in the cold fall whether.

Do you think my concern is valid? I've never worked a high end [affluent] Festival like this in the Fall by Lake Michigan. I'm wondering if the kids will want [or the parents will let the kids get] their faces painted.

ANY WISDOM OR ADVICE OUT THERE? CAN YOU SEE MY DILEMMA?

P.S. If we decide to book the Festival, my husband and I will rent a $60 rental trailer to hall our inventory, tables, tent ect...and will be staying with my sister to save on having to get a hotel. At a glance, out the door [including booth fee, trailer rental and gas], it will be $500 out the door.

Thoughts/Opinions?

I would ask them to hire you...or at least sponsor your booth...it might work out better than expected!

They won't do that...they are well establish and have a huge following for the festival.

Thoughts?

Nothing deters face painting.... nothing.

I have painted in the dead of the winter Olympics and they still got painted (though those were paid gigs). I wouldn't worry too much, the traffic flow as more to do with the venue really.

But i'd be more concerned about that spot price OUCH.

Here is what you do, talk to them on the phone and tell them you "really want to provide the face painting for their event" (exact wording in quotes is important here!) but that the spot fee is pretty hurtin' because unlike with hand made goods, you actually have a cap on how much you can make per hour. Explain that face painting is a 1:1 service, meaning with face painting you are not selling a product; you are selling your time. So this really limits how much you can make per hour. A person selling jewelry can sell 10 $20 items in a hour, or even more, the time doesn't really impact them, and they don't have to make their products on the spot to specifications. 

Also face painting is an entertainment, as we provide color, character and an activity for the kids for the event. Though unlike a magician who can't 'sell' individual tricks to each person, we are a more unique type of entertainment where we certainly can sell our time to each person as they request it.

Instead of paying a fee, offer to pay 10%-20% of what you earn not exceeding the booth fee.

Remind them that you are really providing a valued service to the event. Happy entertained kids = parents who are happy and will stay at the event longer.

Hope this helps!

good point forest-fairy. cmnegro, if you do the gig, bring a hotpot or something to keep your painting water warm.

when i've done fall events, kids mention the cold paint on the brush, because the water cup i dip in gets cold from the outside air.

I just think $400 for a single day painting is REALLY steep when you can only make so much an hour AND it's just you painting, AND the weather is not ideal. 

I just wouldn't do it, sounds like a hole to throw your money in. If you can convince them on a percentage of earnings that would be best. Alternatively if you limit yourself to faster designs (under 5min works) then offer to do the face painting 'by donation' thus providing a valued entertainment to their event, if they wave the space fee all together. You don't charge your performance fee, and they don't charge you a space fee. Public gets painted for 'donations'. Min $1 donation for small art and min $5 for full faces.

We do this with a few events around the city and the results are quite good for popular events. Here is even a write up I wrote explaining how to make good money using this method.

Link

 Food for thought.

Forest-Fairy wrote:I just think $400 for a single day painting is REALLY steep when you can only make so much an hour AND it's just you painting, AND the weather is not ideal. 

I just wouldn't do it, sounds like a hole to throw your money in. If you can convince them on a percentage of earnings that would be best. Alternatively if you limit yourself to faster designs (under 5min works) then offer to do the face painting 'by donation' thus providing a valued entertainment to their event, if they wave the space fee all together. You don't charge your performance fee, and they don't charge you a space fee. Public gets painted for 'donations'. Min $1 donation for small art and min $5 for full faces.

We do this with a few events around the city and the results are quite good for popular events. Here is even a write up I wrote explaining how to make good money using this method.

Link

 Food for thought.

I'm sorry if I failed to mention this but its a 3 day event. On Friday Oct. 15th [from 4pm-9pm] we will be selling blinking and general kids novelty items. On Sat. and Sun. [11am-9pm] we will be face painting as well as selling kids novelty items.

Thoughts/Opinions?

ooooh ok. Well 3 days makes it a bit more worth it for sure, and if you are selling other physical products then yeah, there is no way to bargain around that.

I wouldn't worry about the weather too much, but you know what you should do? Sell glow sticks! If the event it going until 9pm then do it! You can get them really cheap at most places, then upsell them at the event.

As for face painting, a good trick we did was to keep some hand warmers in our pockets to keep our fingers warm between kids. You know those camping things you can get and you rub them together and they get warm? Don't know how else to describe them. But they worked great, and we also put some in the toes of our boots.

@Forest-fairy Darlin' could you just write a book? I'm starting to think I should go read all 777 of your posts because I'm missing valuable information

Are there ever any complaints about cold paint? Do they just have to deal with it?

jlirie mentioned trying to keep your water warm to help battle with cold paints

another thought is very hot water in a large insulated thermos container, pour it out in a cup as needed.

jlirie wrote:another thought is very hot water in a large insulated thermos container, pour it out in a cup as needed.

Great Idea...

Fingerless gloves with a mitten cap that folds down over my fingers between clients with "Hot Paws" in the mitten cap.
Polar fleece blankets to put in client's chair, and one for your chair.
(I have a pouffy down 'skirt' that I purchased many years ago for being on set, and it turned out I did not need it. I kept it... THANK GOODNESS... while it does not make my butt look good, at least my butt is hot! Um, well maybe warm.)
I wear my winter Kodiaks with "Hot Paws" at the toes.
I wear my fur-lined hat with ear flaps.
My face paint has frozen. It takes a LOT of water... and then it turns runny.
Polar fleece neck guard.
hot water thermos, to be refilled by local coffee/tea concession stand.

I was SO proud of my team.
Not one of them complained about how cold it was.... so I did not complain, either.

wow, hate to think what the kids look like, ice statue anyone?

I'm in northeastern Ohio and do a fall festival every year right on Lake Erie (boy do I know the cold that can come across the Great Lakes!) and in my experience, the kids don't care! They still want to be painted, the only thing that's a deal breaker is if it's raining AND cold! Prepare to bring lots of wipes for snotty noses though lol

Thank you so much Kal. I'm so glad I can help everyone here with what I know. I'm also so glad it's appreciated, sadly and too often people get mad with me and call me a 'know it all' or think i'm trying to make them look stupid. Which isn't the case at all, I literally just love sharing my knowledge with others, I'm never trying to be like "Ya! in your face I know more then you! Boom Baby!"

It's sad that in our society that being wrong is associated with failure and ridicule - so people try to avoid it at all costs, even to the point of silliness after then have been PROVED wrong they still cling to not wanting to admit they were in error. I'm the opposite, I strive to 'like' being proven wrong about something, because being wrong should be celebrated, being wrong means I just got smarter!

cmnegro, just had a thought about the festival - have they had face painters there before?

maybe you could ask the coordinators, and if so, find out how well they did. then you'd know whether it was worth it.

I use a heater in my booth - we do an event in Yosmite and it snows! Kids still get painted.

I painted in upper NH for an event in late October near the river. It was freezing, I put my sides up on my tent and had photography lights in a couple of corners, they heated the tent and everyone wanted to come inside to get painted. That was the worse part, but I had a relative, stand at the door telling clients that only the current one being painted could be inside. It worked out pretty good.

hmm, sounds like a good marketing technique, lol

Thank you for all the cold weather tips! Love the hand warmer idea Forest Fairy. This will be my first time painting in the colder months and appreciate the info.