What were the most profitable stalls at your school fete?

[EstoyRobandoSuCasa]

And what wasn't really worth the effort?

Five weeks to go until our summer fete and it's all kicked off (again) at the PTA. Most of the members who were supposed to be organising and running the stalls have walked away from the PTA entirely (sadly, not the two people that I wish would leave, but heigh ho).

A bouncy castle and fairground ride have already been booked and I think the catering is mostly sorted, including a cake stall. And the person in charge of the raffle is staying. So, we just need some games stalls and probably a few stalls selling products.

What would you recommend, bear in mind that the number of volunteers we'll have on the day is likely to be limited due to the Old Guard's talent for pissing them all off. I thought about running away as well, but my kids love the fete and the school needs the money.

Home baking stall and tombola. These were the stalls that always sold out first.

The people we used to hire the bouncy castle from were happy to put it up the day before. So on the Friday the kids would do a sponsored bounce. Basically each class got time on the bouncy castle , had to do 100 bounces but of course it was just a laugh. And parents knew they were basically just being asked to make a donation to the school. But if each child only raises a fiver, that’s still loads.

agree with chocolate tombola. Do a non uniform day the day before, and kids have to bring in chocolate instead of a donation.

we also did a free second hand uniform stall. At the end, anything branded went back into Ptfa cupboard. Anything non branded given to local food larder. (School also took some to have as spares in school). It’s free so you don’t have to man the stall, no one feels judged for browsing, and it means the pile of donated clothes gets cleared out once a year.

Book stall is always the worst earner. We joked last year about doing Buying 1 get 6 Free. Tried it during 2nd half, but still couldn't shift them.

Soft toy tombola went down well I think - re volunteers, at my dd primary they asked parents to cover stalls. PTA just setup and coordinated.

they also did a tin can hoopla - balance a pack of sweets on top of an empty can (beans etc) - if they get the hoop over it they win the sweets. That was always popular.

pick a lolly - loads of chuppa chups - pick one out a board with holes and if it had nail varnish on the end you got extra sweets, otherwise you just kept the chuppa chup

bottle Tombola

they use to do dress down on the Friday before the fete in return for a donation - so one year being cakes, another a bottle etc etc.

pay to chuck wet sponges at teachers

pimms stall

Definitely a teddy tombola - we used to have about 200 donated and everything was profit. Ice creams are quite high earners as well.
Another was give each child a little plastic carton and ask them to fill it up for another tombola. All profit.
Our teachers always did a fruit machine - three boxes with a hole on top, four bits of fruit in each, pull a home made broomstick handle, they each pick one out and if all the same, win a prize (which they provided)

if you have a wildlife place near you perhaps they would help. The kids loved handling the snakes, tarantulas etc though the adults were freaked out. some do falcon displays too
never have enough cakes to sell and if there is a really nice cake perhaps do a guess the weight of the cake. some of these little things can be fun and though it seems they do not earn much added together at the end it all helps. Plus its always good to have cheaper stalls for the kids etc
In the same vein guess the name of a teddy or doll,or the birthday of a toy which is always fun.ideal if instead of harnessing to a stall you get people to wander among the crowds to sell these completitions
if you can get anyone to bring along some old vehicles it may not make money but keeps the dads amused so mum can do the rounds

Ice lollies. Buy the cheap ones from Tesco, you can get 8 for £1:20 sell them at 50p each. That's £2:80 profit on each box

Another one that was always popular was soft toy stall where they all had names. The toys were sold really cheaply as many people have loads of unwanted bears etc and we would get loads of donations.

Children loved buying a soft toy with their name on it or a siblings name.

I agree with you about the cakes. I'm not much of a baker, so last year I made chocolate tiffin for a cake stall. It sold, but the school only charged 50p for each slice (or cupcake), which barely covers the cost of ingredients these days. This year, I think I'll just stick the cost of the ingredients in the cash tin and save myself the effort!

You need very organised volunteers for face painting. They are popular but if you don’t have maximum 6 faces (have a board with designs on - take photos of the best practise ones and stick them up) you will end up with kids taking ages looking through a book of designs, volunteers not being able to do ‘that design’ because they’re tricky or you don’t have the colours, and a load of frustrated kids and parents. In terms of profit, unless someone is happy to use their own set of washable face paints, sponges and brushes you can end up spending more on the equipment than you make in profit.

They are great fun and there’s no almost nakedness involved - I’ve tried to attach a photo!

Same at my DCs school. Keep price of goes really cheap and they keep coming back for more goes. Especially at the end of the day when they have a few coins left.

Any games where you win prizes donated by families.

Ours does it where you buy like a £5 card to play 12 games. Then once you tick off all 12 goes you can take the card to the prize table and collect a prize.

And ice lollies. We go to Lidl and buy boxes of ice lollies at £1.50 a box and then sell them for £1 each.

Wow, so many ideas here! Thank you all 😊 I'd heard of some of them before but some are completely new to me, even though I've read loads of online lists recently. Also, I had no idea which ones were money-makers and which were just a bit of fun.

Has anyone ever tried to do the kind of treasure hunt which involves going around the school grounds with a clue sheet looking for certain items? These are very popular at a the local botanical gardens and a small local museum, but I've never seen one at a fete.

Also, has anyone ever tried to run a lemonade stall? Whenever I see one at a food fair, it has a massive queue of customers and a very stressed-looking stallholder. So, if we did try running one, we wouldn't attempt to make each order individually with a fancy machine, we'd make a big batch of homemade lemonade earlier that day and keep it cool.

Bottle tombola! And wheelbarrow of booze!

Do tell me more about the the wheelbarrow of booze! 😂

@EstoyRobandoSuCasa We did a treasure hunt one year.

Picture clues of things around the site (but only safe places wrt the fair) and then crayons at each point to colour in one stripe of a rainbow. Completed rainbows got a prize.

Chocolate tombola

Cakes

That's a nice twist on the idea. How many kids took part?

But these are learning moments. It os important to learn that you can't always have what you desire. How old is DS ?

Sounds good. Maybe we'll just sell home-made lemonade at the bar instead of trying a separate stall.

Alcohol stall (for adults)

Wheelbarrow of booze

Food stall

You get the picture 😂

We used to do hot dogs. It was the scent of frying onions that was irresistible!

Our school used to have a water slide on a slight hill, the head would stand at the top with a hosepipe and a bottle of washing up liquid to help with the slidiness.. a pound for 3 goes or five pounds for unlimited and it used to make a fortune!