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Original poster

How much would you pay to get your child's face painted at a festival?

43 replies

AbsentmindedWoman · 22/08/2018 12:50

I am a face painter, and have an opportunity to work at a festival. The pitch is £100 per day - I've rarely worked this way before and not for years, the bulk of the work is private bookings for x amount of hours.

What is reasonable?

OP posts:
aperolspritzplease · 22/08/2018 12:51

Bog standard cat / dog type thing £3. Some of he more intricate glitter stuff and patterns that take more time up to £8.

RomanyRoots · 22/08/2018 12:54

I used to face paint many moons ago. Grin
The going rate last time I looked was £1 per face, I'd throw in a balloon animal with this too.
If it was a charity or not for profit type of fun day, then 50p is about right.

Imagine how much it would cost for a couple of children to have everything that is on offer at the festival and ask yourself what you would be willing to pay per head for the day.

Buzzlightyearsbumchin · 22/08/2018 12:56

I am a facepainter too.

How many hours are you at the festival for?

£100 a day is a lot for a facepainter at a festival tbh,it's not like a stall where you can sell loads and earn loads.

You would likely have to charge around £5 a face to make it worth your time if it's 6 or 7 hours there. There will be lots of parents who won't pay that.

I would buy a fuck load of festival glitter and offer a cheaper and quicker option of just doing festival glitter as well.

neddle · 22/08/2018 12:57

How long does it take to do a face?
How long would you be working for, allowing for breaks?
How many faces would you do in that time?

Divide all your costs (pitch fee, paint etc) by that number of faces.
That’s your cost per face.
Add on labour cost, then profit to get a price.

Don’t work for nothing, and make sure you’ll cover your costs.

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 22/08/2018 12:58

Thanks. I think I will decline the festival - after the pitch fee, I don't think it will pay.

I was thinking £2 would be a reasonable fee before I posted, which would rely on a pretty steady trade to just cover the pitch fee.

I do balllon modelling as well but if I threw in a balloon I'd basically just be spending money to give them away!

OP posts:
cloudtree · 22/08/2018 12:59

I would have thought about a fiver

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 22/08/2018 12:59

You would likely have to charge around £5 a face to make it worth your time if it's 6 or 7 hours there. There will be lots of parents who won't pay that.

Exactly. I don't think the sums add up in favour of me.

OP posts:
Citylivingwithdogs · 22/08/2018 13:01

I was going to say £6.00. I think £2 or £3 is extremely cheap.

MinorRSole · 22/08/2018 13:02

£100 is ridiculous - that's a lot to have to earn before you even start to make a profit! I'd be surprised if they had anyone willing to pay that

MinorRSole · 22/08/2018 13:04

To answer the question I would easily pay around a fiver. Cheapest we've paid is £3 for the mask style ones and we paid £40 for a face painter to come to our dc's party

Bluntness100 · 22/08/2018 13:05

I'd also say at least a fiver. I'm shocked anyone would think less.

I was at a festival a few weeks ago and drunkenly got mine painted, just glitter on one cheekbone and aboce rhe eye, it was five pounds.

CatsOutTheCudboard · 22/08/2018 13:05

What type of festival is it? I've paid £12 for glitter hair/face at tam festival.

I think they last one I was at was £5-6 for face painting

Princessgenie · 22/08/2018 13:05

We are currently at a theme park. Just paid a fiver each for face paint. Where we usually go is eight quid. I would assume at anything less than about £4 that it was going to be fairly rubbish.

PasstheStarmix · 22/08/2018 13:05

A fiver?

Buzzlightyearsbumchin · 22/08/2018 13:06

Have a word with the organisers though. Facepainting is a great attraction, sometimes I get the stall for free and they take a percentage of the money, sometimes they agree to pay me hourly and I give the takings to them, there have even been times I've went halfers with another facepainter and we work together and charge a bit less, no harm in exploring other options.

Bluntness100 · 22/08/2018 13:07

There will be lots of parents who won't pay that

Of course, that's the case with everything, but also plenty would pay it. As witnessed by this thread.

MrsAmaretto · 22/08/2018 13:07

At a festival I would expect £4-£5. I paid £2.50 at an agricultural show for 1 kid to go down a bouncy castle slide thing 5 times....

I would also expect the kids to only be able to choose between a few designs to speed up the process.

Is there any point in you negotiating the pitch price? If your happy not to do it you’ve nothing to loose.

flyingsaucersherbet · 22/08/2018 13:07

I was going to say £5 too. I’d think it was a bargain if it was less than that!

Belmo · 22/08/2018 13:07

I’d pay £5 (max). I’m really tight!

LemonadePockets · 22/08/2018 13:09

What kind of festival? I don’t think £5 is ridiculous, do you have another person to do it with you? Agree with the comment about the festival glitter too, everywhere I see that it has a huge queue for face and hair!

kaytee87 · 22/08/2018 13:11

I think it depends where abouts in the U.K. you are. I live in Scotland and noticed when I was in Norfolk for a week at the beginning of the month that everything costs almost double the price it does at home.
Locally I wouldn't expect to pay any more than £3/£4 for a bog standards kids design but down south I wouldn't be surprised at £6 (and would pay it)

MaybeDoctor · 22/08/2018 13:12

I think £5-£6 is about the going rate for face painting.

Do you find it enjoyable and a good way to earn money? I sometimes wonder about getting trained to do this.

cookiesandchocolate · 22/08/2018 13:14

I was at a festival where they charged £10. Ridiculous.
I would be happy to pay a fiver. Might not make you a profit but could be good advertising?

Original poster
AbsentmindedWoman · 22/08/2018 13:14

Thanks for the range of opinions.

Festival is in London. There's an admission fee of £30 per adult, and you can take two kids in with that. I don't know enough about family tickets to know if that's a good deal or not, or if people will feel like they've spent enough money already just to get in!

OP posts:
Buzzlightyearsbumchin · 22/08/2018 13:15

Maybe I bought a kit and trained myself of YouTube tutorials. Insurance isn't much, start up kit isn't much and I'm so busy I turn away business a lot (I only do part time around my other job though). Go for it.