Poor take up of free child activities

I know it feels horribly disappointing, OP, but honestly, 75% is a really good turnout for a free event. Congratulations on making something happen, and I'm sure those children who saw the performance had a great time.

You've had some great advice here OP. I agree 75% attendance is great.
I sometimes organise stuff and one thing I notice is a real class difference in how much notice people like.
Better off people will respond to advertising 2-3 weeks in advance. Leave it any later and they'll already have plans.
Poorer people make plans for the next 2-3 days. Tell them any earlier and something will "come up" in between times. Or they'll simply forget.
(This is a massive generalisation of course! But I've found it works as a rule of thumb)
The answer, as PP have said, is flyers ahead of time and a ring round a day or two before.

75% attendance is an incredible result, you should be pleased.

People don't value things they haven't paid for, "Oh that, it's free - it's not worth anything". So they don't feel as invested in turning up, and they don't think there's any value in returning the ticket for someone else.

I had to re-read you post, I could understand if you were disappointed if it was 75% no-show.

Just reread 25% no show for a free event is really good. In future maybe just allow an over book of 10%.

In the past when running events like this I’ve put in a refundable deposit or a lunch that’s charged (with a low income waiver) as people just don’t show when it’s paid.

I voted YANBU, because I understand your disappointment, but I think you need to manage your expectations; 3/4 of the target audience showed up - well done!

@Noosnom how would the OP have the phone numbers of people to text them?
I read it as the flyer in the bookbags was essentially advertising the event and they had to apply for the tickets - which people did but 25% didn't turn up.

Some families won't bother to look in book bags. A text to the parents would be a better way of catching them.

I think better to make a small charge for these things. Say £2 per family or per adult or something. It will be more valued and it doesn't need to be completely free to be available to poor people. But yes 75% sounds like a great turnout! I think your expectations were too high.

This sounds like a lovely thing to have done OP, and lots of people will have benefited from your hard work on it. I’m sorry some people didn’t come but overall it sounds a success

75% is pretty good. Just oversell next time. As a comparison, no show for running races is similar and people have paid for those so you’d think they’d turn up. I went to one recently where they sold 175 places and only had 100 starters.

Yeah this is why people don’t do things. I have so many great ideas but just not worth doing them.

I thought you were going to say no one showed up! A 75% attendance rate is actually pretty good. Not child-related, but I am involved in bookable-but-free events and we never assume or get 100% attendance. Try not to be too disheartened - focus on the 75% who did turn up and next time offer more tickets than places.

As someone who works with disadvantaged families and families from low socio-economic background, this is incredibly common. Sending out reminders the day before and on the day of the event activity often works, but that can be time consuming. I can understand your frustration.

I think you are overreacting. You had a full uptake and (if I understand correctly) 75% of people attended, which is actually very good for a free event.

Instead of feeling down, just make a mental note to have a simple process for people to cancel if they can't attend, and a waiting list to offer cancellations to.

A lot of the London museums and the RI run free events and if I add us to the waiting list I almost always get tickets because so many people just grab anything free without really thinking if they want to or can go.

I still think you're being unrealistic in your expectations.

Most people will take free tickets to things and then not really give missing it a second thought - the fact that 75% of them still showed up is pretty amazing imo.

family theatre show delivered by a professional theatre company with tickets usually retailing for £9 each

Do they get plenty of sales on their commercial work at full price? Is most of their work commercial, or are they rather reliant on grant funded projects.

My friend works for one of these theatre companies. They would not exist if they had to charge for all their productions, they survive due to grant funding. The demand isn't there.

Sorry you've been taken for granted like this.

I've run holiday activities as a volunteer on a housing estate where money was generally tight. I used to take a £2 deposit per placem, which the kids would get back on the day to spend in our wee tuck shop. If a parent didn't have £2 spare that wasn't an issue as those were the ones who needed it most and were most likely to turn-up, and the rest generally did to get their money's worth.

75% turnout doesn't sound too bad.
Near where I live a half term youth club started up for teens. Despite all the typical "there's nothing around here for teens to do" that you constantly hear - just 2 girls turned up.

Exactly what I was going to suggest

Were the 75% who turned up grateful? Did you include cancellation contacts in the ticket confirmation email?

I used to work for a museum that occasionally offered grant funded free events. I would say a 75% uptake is fantastic.

One thing we found with our events was making it clear there would be turn up space on the day. We always ran one session (usually the after lunch session) that was turn up on the day, book at the front desk. We always backfilled any no-shows with people who turned up on the day. We also allowed a 10% overbooking online knowing full well there would be some no shows.

Unfortunately when things are free it's not as valued as when you have to pay. People book them, then forget to add them into calenders so forget to attend. Some people send the link to friends who they would like to attend with but the spaces run out before friends get booked on and then the original booker holds on to tickets if there is nothing better to do that day. Family life, illnesses and emergencies happen. Sometimes one parent books it and it is the other parents responsibility to attend.

Sometimes the event just isn't what people want or of interest to the demographic the grant funding targeted. Some of our grant funded events have had very very low attendance. I remember a few years ago our museum hosted a fantastic exhibition on the RAF and one of the special event days was grant funded for teens. On paper it looked a fantastic event and had it been open to all ages I know for a fact we would have filled every tour. We had 4 13 year olds all day, all on the day visitors. The content of the exhibition wasn't linked enough to the national curriculum so didn't draw in the "supporting my DCs education crowd". Yet the exhibition and related tour was an absolute sell out on the pensioner bus trips. Similarly we hosted an art exhibition that was wildly popular with the university art students and people who loved that type of art. The grant funding however was for low income families and part of the targeting was with one of the local food banks. We had 2 families come that day. Both families went round the whole exhibition in under 10 minutes. Did the craft activity in under 10 minutes. Asked what else was free and then left. We asked for feedback as part of the funding and it just wasn't their thing. It didn't interest them, they didn't know the artists. The food bank had told them about it and they had nothing else to do that day and our art exhibition was free.

I'm another one saying your title doesn't match your post. Free events come with high %age of no shows. I expect to lose 33%. I don't take it personally that people snap up tickets optimistically think they might attend then on the day don't. It says nothing about me or the event I've offered.