questions about fairs--face painting, glitter tattoos, and balloons

I am planning on doing several fairs this year. This is my first year going as a vendor instead of doing charity work. My husband does balloon animals. The two fairs I am looking at are county fairs and they charge between $150 and $200 for a 10x10 space for five days. My hubby and I would share the space and charge per face or per balloon. Our oldest daughter and son would help us and perhaps do glitter tattoos. Do you think it would be worth it to do these fairs? How would I figure out how many balloons, paint, glitter, etc. to buy? We still have to buy an EZ Up, tables, an chairs. Do you think we would at least be able to break even?

Have any of you ever sold balloon creations at venues like this? Have you done well? Have you gotten angry customers because their balloons popped, and what did you do about it?

I wish I could offer you hard and fast answers but with these types of things, especially in our fest heavy area, there are many variables as to what makes them profitable and successful (weather, traffic, location placement, competition, etc.)

I do a lot of the county fairs not far from you. We're based on the west side of Rochester area and work from West Syracuse to Buffalo and into the Southerntier (Ithaca, Watkins Glen side of it) doing fairs and festivals.

I don't know what the East side/Northern areas will support as far as balloons, because we don't do them, but there are a few things to keep in mind for body art.

County fairs can be WONDERFUL (or else we wouldn't do them) but they don't offer exclusivity, and many state that right in their contracts. If it's a small fair (I'm assuming it is from the price) and there are other painters there, it is hard to make cost. You need to research and see if there are other painters allowed in prior to submitting your app. If you want PM me which ones you are looking at and I can let you know if we're there or have done it, or know anyone who has.

On top of this is traffic volume. You need to find out what the event volume is per day. If you are just going to be sitting around 3 of the 5 days because it isn't busy, then it isn't worth it. If the thru-the-gate traffic can support the amount of painters there, then try.

Along with this would be where you are placed. Many offer first come, first serve on placement. Applying late might mean that you aren't in the most ideal placement for your target traffic to see you. Ask where you will be, even the general idea of the area, and where the other painters will be. This will help you assess traffic.

Many of the ones I do pay a clown to perform and do balloon animals for free, so you will want to check into that as well.

I'm not sure if you already have it, but county fairs also require insurance. It wasn't on your list of expenditures, so I wanted to mention it just in case.
Also several state in their contracts that they require professionally made signs only, nothing hand painted, etc. Plus you will need to have lights for your booth for the night of the fairs. Those are sneaky expenditures that you might not have thought of outside of the structure.

As for the amount of supplies, again it's hard to gauge because with volume/traffic, placement, other painters and weather it can vary hugely. Too hot/humid and business drops just as much as if we get too much rain.

I will say, though, that I have never gone out to buy the supplies or the structure based on one or two events. I break down the cost over the course of how many events per year I will use them at, or in the case of tents, over the course of events over years that I will use it. I never expect to break even on everything from one event.

As I said I wish I had hard and fast answers but there are too many variables. All I can offer is do your research, figure out ALL costs, how much you would have to make per day to get it back and then once you've crunched the numbers, see if it works for you.

Good luck!

Thanks, Lynnie. I am in the Broome and Tioga Counties area. I am planning on getting insurance. I just forgot to list that.

I was contacted to perform at Broome a couple years ago and I offered a discount on performance if we could put the booth there. They did warn me that someone else was there. It ended up that we didn't do the fair but definitely check with them and see.

Good luck!!! One other suggestion if you do these, keep a fan in the booth. It gets hot!

Are you saying that you weren't going to pay for a booth like a vendor, but they were going to pay you to come? They told me they don't have a facepainter for this year. That kind of made me nervous because I thought that maybe their previous painter didn't feel it was worth it.

We do sideshow and circus performances, so we get paid to come in and do those things. Sometimes we offer discounts on our performances if we can put in a booth, so it works out better for both parties.

For all I know the previous face painters were there for charity instead of paid vendors. I wouldn't want to make any assumptions to how or what they did. We didn't go because we had events closer to home offered to us.

Do they offer tent rentals by any chance? A couple of the fairs up here offer tent rentals for $80 for the week. That might help you out.

Great ideas and things to think about! Thank you so much for your help.

I would say the fee for 5 days isn't bad. Many people pay that for one day.

Let us know how you make out.

-Metina

My pleasure Lori!

Hopefully I'll see you down the line somewhere since we're so close!

I regularly pay $80 per day for a festival... anything more then that it starts becoming nonviable.... I have paid $130 before, and probably will again.

I would suggest explaining to them that you really arn't a vendor.
What you do is paid entertainment and having you there will make the festival ... well a festival, as festivals aren't festivals without face painting and balloons.
Explain your takings for the day will be limited by the amount you can actually paint... so if there is a huge rush of people you can't suddenly sell all of your stuff and make a killing.... that puts you in a different catagory.

Usually after I have explained this they offer me their "charity rate" which is substantially less then what a Vendor pays.
Here it's usually split into - Food Vendor, being most expensive, general, not for profit or community, and sponsored.
It's pretty hard for us to fit into those molds so I always end up doing a back and forth personally with events organizers to get the price I want and exclusivity ( if at all possible).
Remember the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so speak up and see what you can get out of them.

With the balloon thing I would put up a sign that says -
" Our balloons are echo friendly and fully bio-degradable - which means they de-grade in the sun so as not to become an enviromental issue.
Exposure to the sun will lead to the balloon art popping.
We do our best to ensure you get the most out of your balloon art but appreciate your understanding in that once you have left our tent with your balloon we can no-longer offer you a replacement."

Or something to that effect..... that was just off the top of my head.
I have only done two day events, so the idea of a week or two makes me exhausted just thinking about it!

balloons pop... sometimes I will offer a replacement if I'm pretty sure that they didn't just stomp on it and if they were polite about getting a replacement. Far as I can tell from other twisters, it's pretty standard to charge $1 per balloon in the sculpture and I find it works well for me. The good thing with balloons is that they can go pretty fast, so even though they are less expensive than the face painting, you can still add up those dollars quickly.

I have some new questions now. One of the fairs has changed their pricing. They are giving me a choice--indoors is $60 for the week with 2 free hours of painting/balloons on kids' day and we can charge what we want the rest of the time OR outdoors is 10% of our sales and 2 free hours of painting/balloons on kids' day. I asked if we would be placed by the rides area if we are outdoors, and she said yes. She also said there is a kids area indoors that we would be placed next to if we were there.

My husband feels that if we are outdoors just paying the vendor fee of $150 might be better than the 10% deal. He feels that going indoors is the best deal of the two. I think that indoors may mean a lot less traffic and business, so outdoors would be better. However, we don't have a tent yet. Would buying a tent off-set the benefit of being outdoors? I'm still thinking outdoors would have much higher traffic, though if it rains it could backfire...I don't know.

Hubby and I are not fighting or in a disagreement over it, just discussing the pros and cons without any real experience with fairs.

Having no tent and little fair experience would tip the direction in the favour of inside to me especially if there is air conditioning - you'd have the dual advantage of no rain/sun, and less heat/cold generally giving you the chance to try it out.

I like percentage deals (10% sounds great to me for a fair compared to some I've done) because if it *does* rain or is otherwise quiet, you have no direct cost outlay more than you've made.... it's less risk - to get to the point of needing to pay them $150 you'd have to bring in $1500 - figure out how many faces that is for you, and how many you can do an hour (if the lines are long) - that will give you a better idea if it is more worth it to pay the flat rate.

given those options, I'd go inside... if you are the only painter, they'll find you

hmmm I worked a festival where I had to paint for free for three hours for the sponsor and the rst of the time was mine.... change over was a disaster!
People followed me in a big line from my stall to the sponsors tent ... when I got there and set up the line was over 1 hour long wait!...
Then they all followed me back.
And the difficulty of explaining between this time and this time is free but the rest of the time it's $5 or whatever.... I hope they have planned something out for you so it works smoothly.

Me too! I was thinking about that earlier today, and I'm wondering if it's ok if I just offer free cheek art or something, definitely not full faces. I'll have to call and clarify what exactly are they expecting.

No matter what is indoors, you will never make as much inside a building at these fairs (in CNY) as you will outside. Even on hot days, people don't go in for as long as they are out and when they go in, they whip through it pretty quickly.

That said, is that the first event you will be doing? If so you might want to take the indoor space and use the money to invest in the tent for the next one.

I have no clue how you would handle the whole "free" thing. I think it sets a poor standard and expectation to do that in the middle of a ppf gig. Even if you only offer cheek art, that's what people will expect for free/cheap. If it were me personally, I wouldn't do it and would just pay the fee.

Let us know what you decide!

We have decided to be outside near the family entertainment area. They really want the free face painting. My contact said she wanted it at my booth! I told her that just wouldn't work because I may have a line of people that I would have to tell that we were changing over to free cheap designs, and then suddenly have to change back over to paying. She understood and said we could have a separate place set up for the free. Then I told her we would not be offering the same designs as normal. She said that was fine if I just wanted to do something simple like a little heart or whatever. I then told her that I would not be the one doing it. I am going to send over one of my kids to do it. She was fine with that also. So, I'll be able to stay and keep painting at my booth while my daughter or her friend slip quietly out to do the free painting somewhere else.

I think this arrangement will work out ok for us. I really don't want to pass up the fair based on two hours of free face painting. The little freebies will not come close to the other stuff we are painting, so I don't know that it will make a huge difference in what we earn in the end. My husband is doing balloon animals at our booth, and we are planning on doing glitter tattoos, too. Neither of those will have any freebies.

Sounds like you got it all sorted. Well done.
he only time I painted for "free" which was actualy by donation, I did it for the sponser of the festival and they paid me and hourly rate while I did it - If I hadn't they would of gotten someone else - I would have lost the client and had free face painting going on about 15 metres from me. No choice but given the same circumstances I wouldn't do it again.

I think you made a great decision and can't wait to hear how it goes! Remember also you're getting lots of exposure and advertising by being there. Consider having a mailing list sign up or even a raffle entry for a freebie. I'm doing a big outdoor festival and will be offering the chance to enter a monthly raffle for a free 1-hour face painting birthday party for up to 10 guests within my driving vicinity. All they have to do to enter is sign up for my mailing list, and if they go to my fb page and "like", they can get another entry. Then I'm going to promote the same raffle on fb for people to enter and at the end of the month will announce the winner. I'm hoping to get a nice mailing list and create a Birthday Club where I send out a coupon for 10% off or something along those lines.

If you haven't seen it already, there's a great thread here with a compiled checklist for festivals and fairs.

Tash wrote:hmmm I worked a festival where I had to paint for free for three hours for the sponsor and the rst of the time was mine.... change over was a disaster!
People followed me in a big line from my stall to the sponsors tent ... when I got there and set up the line was over 1 hour long wait!...
Then they all followed me back.

Oh my goodness, that is simultaneously hilarious and nightmarish! Thank you for sharing the experience so hopefully nobody else has to go through it. I think I would have had to make all those people following me do the Monty Python Institute of Silly Walks walk....

Thank you all for sharing your experience and even questions! I have been thinking about our local county fair, and our state fair. But didn't know how to go about any of it. Lots of awesome ideas, and advice here!!!

I normally only do private parties, but there were 2 festivals I wanted to get into this year, as a way of getting into a different market/locale.

Well I just completed Day 1 of a festival I have been trying to get into for 3 years and I am the ONLY face painter. Set-up from 11-6 actually ended up being longer. I will tell you It was slow from 11 til about 1 p.m. but then.................

It seemed like the kids were crawling out of the woodwork so to speak. I painted non-stop from 1- 7:30 and the musical performances ended just after 6, but people were still milling about just enjoying the day. I'm guessing cabin fever had set in because we had just had a straight week of severe thunderstorms that finally ended friday night after knocking power out.

So i guess people were just glad to be out in the sun. My pricing was $5, $7, $10-$12, and $15 and up for extreme faces and body art

Glitter tats from $5 up to $20 for body art

Balloons depending on #of balloons per design from $1 to $4

Once things got going did not take long to make back all the money I expensed $250.00 booth fees, food, gas and a nice profit to boot. So today is all gravy, and I had many comment they would be back again.

So, I am heading out now, gotta be set up by a certain time for inspections...glad I decided to leave my tent there..one less thing to lug this morning.... lol

Have a great day guys.

chucklor2 wrote:We have decided to be outside near the family entertainment area. They really want the free face painting. My contact said she wanted it at my booth! I told her that just wouldn't work because I may have a line of people that I would have to tell that we were changing over to free cheap designs, and then suddenly have to change back over to paying.
.

I have a thought....Do Sponsored Face Painting, not Free Face Painting. Let me explain. If I understand you right the Organizers want you to paint the public for 2 hours at no charge to the public and they will give you a reduced rate. If that is true, then my take on it is they are 'sponsoring' 2 hours of painting. The best time to do this, in my opinion, is the first 2 hours (or the last 2 if the fair is open really late). You get a chance to warm up, and then send out lots of kids to 'advertise' for you. I would make up a sign that says something like:

(if the fair opens at Noon) Organizer/Sponsor is sponsoring face painting from Noon to 2 pm today. That means that (sponsor) is paying for you. Please be sure to stop by and thank them after you have been painted.

A note like this (you can word it much better I'm sure) would get the line started for you, and don't forget to have a Tip Jar available for Tips, especially during this time. My personal thought would be to paint the same stuff that you would be normally painting for pay, but just the basic design without the added glitter and outlines that wows so that you can save the best for self paying clients. That way if anyone complains or comments you can easily say that if they want glitter or more, they can come back after 2 when it is available...or something like that.

Please let us know how it goes and how you handled it.

Jenny

ChangingFaceDesigns wrote:Well I just completed Day 1 of a festival I have been trying to get into for 3 years and I am the ONLY face painter. Set-up from 11-6 actually ended up being longer. I will tell you It was slow from 11 til about 1 p.m. but then.................

It seemed like the kids were crawling out of the woodwork so to speak. I painted non-stop from 1- 7:30 and the musical performances ended just after 6, but people were still milling about just enjoying the day.

Once things got going did not take long to make back all the money I expensed $250.00 booth fees, food, gas and a nice profit to boot. So today is all gravy, and I had many comment they would be back again.

This is my experience with PPF gigs (except the one I did yesterday, it picked up at 5, when the fest ended at 6- it was soooo weird). I actually make more at PPF than I ever do at private parties for this very reason. I love them...to the point where from May to September we do over 40 of them, several running 5/6 days long, and we're adding more next year.

We also get more private parties from the PPF festivals than we do from any other advertising.

Which is why I couldn't understand why so many people are so against PPF. Then again, we live in a crazy fest-heavy area so we're very fortunate.

Kick butt and have a great time!!!


Jenny, that idea is brill!!!

Lynnie wrote: Which is why I couldn't understand why so many people are so against PPF. Then again, we live in a crazy fest-heavy area so we're very fortunate.

I'm not against it, per se, just no interest in doing it myself.

I think if there were a lot of festivals around, if people here thought it was worth paying for, and if I was depending on face painting as my sole income I MIGHT, MIGHT, occasionally do PPF... MAYBE...

But for now I like my hourly rate.