Large Festival confusion...

Well, I am running into a little bump in the road. I have a big event in October. Too big to be alone, so I am training 2 girls that are new but learning and will be able to do some $5 faces.

Last year the event had a $1 FP booth which is fine. They painted well over 2000 people. The event coordinater said they had 6 people and knows I will need at least six so everyone can get done, loads of kids coming on buses etc. I just sent her an e-mail explaining that I will be charging $5- $10 for my service, even the new girls. Therefore we won't be painting everyone but only those that want to pay for it. If I have more than 3 painting, I think it will cut deeply into the profit for us?

I did let her know that if the Festival still wants to do a $1 cheek booth, that they are free to get someone else, even if that means me not coming but I can't do that. It isn't what I want to be known for and at the end of the day, I have to make money. It would be nice if I could paint the masses for $1 but it can't be at the cost of my new business or the quality of work I put out. Am I wrong? Have any of you done really big festivals before? How many were painting at your booth?

I didn't put this in the Where's the Beef section because, the lady is very nice and I think we just have a misunderstanding of what I do.

Is this an event where you are working as a vendor and paying a booth fee? If so, you have the right to charge what you want for face painting. I would definitey NOT do it for $1. You will exhaust yourself and not make any money. I do several large festivals, some by myself and some with another painter. We charge $5-$15 per face, and this gives us a steady line of customers, but weeds out those who really don't want it bad enough to wait in line. All of these festivals also offer free facepainting, and that hasn't effected our business at all. It's nice to be able to say "the free painting is right over there" if anyone remarks that our prices are high.

I always err on the side of fewer painters. With too few, the worst that can happen is that you have a long line and possibly can expect to raise your prices the next year. (Rule of thumb: if your line is an hour long, you need to raise your prices.) If there are too many painters, it can go sour fast. No one makes any money, and there is awkwardness when a customer comes in and sees everyone standing around eyeing them hungrily. I imagine that if the $1 painters had six working, you can probably get by quite well with three painters charging a decent amount, or even two.

Thankyou Angie. Your advice is greatly appreciated. It is a place that I have pd for the booth. She just contacted me back and said for me to def. charge whatever I want, we had just gotten our wires crossed a little as I didn't tell her at the time of the booking of the amount we would charge per face for even cheek stuff. I think it is all worked out now, but I did get a little freaked out over the confusion.

I mentioned to her that if they wanted to have another both set up doing freebies or $1 stuff, I am cool with that. I know that thing is big enough that we would all still end up happy.

good to hear it worked out!

Glad it worked out

Nice that it worked for you!

To answer your question, we've never had more than 3 of us in the booth...2 artists and 1 glitter tat/hawker only person. I don't think I'd put 6 in a booth simply for space reasons (unless it's a 10x20).

I find two of us in a 10x10 is crowded!

This is something I have thought a lot about too Perry. I know it is going to be tight. I think our space is 12x12 and no one right up against us. It will be a learning experience I am sure.

Rife - I want to disagree on you encouraging her to get another FREE or $1 booth of face painters. In order for us to make a living at this wonderful craft, we need to educate the public on the value of what we do. Remember your costs: Liability insurance, supplies, gas (especially these days), the booth you paid for to be in this event. You're shooting yourself in the foot. Personally, I wouldn't partake in an event (especially if I had to pay for it) if there was another freebeer there. Just my opinion, don't sell yourself short though!!!!

Well, it is good for me then that the organization said no ,they were perfectly fine just having me charging whatever I need to charge. It was just starting to feel like it was going to be an issue and if I wasn't what they were expecting I would even gracefully bow out if they would rather have it the way it used to be.

After talking to the gal today, her main concern was that we may get nasty customers saying we want it for a $1. I told her that after people see what we do, they will be on board, they always are. And of course sometimes people get nasty but they don't have to get painted.

thanks for all of the input.

Last year I started doing a festival where for MANY years they did FREE facepainting, but they needed to get a #. There were only so many time slots available and only so many free faces. Hundreds of kids went without. They were eventually not asked back because of a new coordinator didn't want to bring in someone from out-of-town, she wanted a local. YEAH for her! A friend & I set up, charged $5-$10 for faces & did very well. There were a LOT of questions, but I reassured everyone that no one was getting turned away this year & kept a positive attitude. Wasn't that big a deal. We did fairly well for a rainy weekend. I can only imagine how well we'd do with a beautiful weekend & I looking forward to finding out this year again. Stay strong & believe in your talents! Good luck & I hope you make some serious $$$

Thank you grinmpt. Here;s hoping for sunny days for our festivals this year.