Poor take up of free child activities

[DazedAndConfused2024]

Don’t want to reveal too many identifying details - but I’m so disappointed!
I sourced grant funding for and spent hours of my own time arranging an event for children over several weekends. All free and delivered by highly skilled professionals.

At a time when there is so much talk about giving enriching opportunities to children - this was completely wasted.

All the free tickets were booked in advance but there was approx 25% no shows for each session. Ie not that the events weren’t publicised - they were, to the degree all tickets booked.

am really disappointed and also quite fed up.
the total indifference is mind blowing to the extent I can’t be bothered anymore! I’m a volunteer and have done this because it’s a ‘good thing to do’

Charge for a ticket and then offer rebate against food/drink on the day?
It’s hard incentivising anyone these days.

75% turnout for a free event is pretty good, OP. My work runs a lot free business events and we plan for 50% no shows. As PP have said, you can definitely overbook these things by at least 10%. Even for a fabulous fancy hosted party you won't get 100% attendance. Life gets in the way sometimes.

People aren't generally too fond of their kids being targeted as the ones deserving pity, which is how being the only ones with letters in their bookbags would be interpreted.

They're also more likely to work weekends, have problems sorting out travelling there for drop off, returning for pick up, money for clothing, snacks and lunches, look after other children - it's a lot easier for one of two parents to drop their kid off in the car with everything they need than it is for one parent wrangle the smaller child 20 minutes to the bus stop, wait for bus 1, wait for bus 2, drop off, wait for 2 buses and walk home, then sit there for 35 minutes before having to leave to pick up again.

And that's even before it's being run by somebody who complains they aren't showing enough gratitude.

I agree with this.

I also think it's hugely optimistic to expect 100% turnout at these things. Life with children is unpredictable - as well as all the above, you also have things like illness, other commitments, family crisis, etc.

75% attendance is fine for this sort of event and saying things like “total indifference” and “feel empty” is excessively negative. It was a successful event so stop spoiling it in your head.

Hi OP, a 75% attendance rate is really good! I organise free events for work and we assume 1/3 no shows. Next time I would overbook it slightly, say 10%, or you could ask people to book to register interest but do admittance on a first come first served basis.

I run groups for the NHS and we always expect 20-40% of people won’t turn up. We understand that with our particular client group, that cancellations/do not attends go with the territory (due to variable symptoms, anxiety, problems with transport etc).

I think with families it would be a similar rate but for different reasons. Unplanned illness, tiredness, meltdowns or even just because they have a better offer! 75% is a good turnout from my experience.

it sounds like you’ve done a really positive thing though and I’m sure the people who attended got a lot from it. I agree it can be frustrating but try to focus on the positives.

Kids that would really benefit from free events are often not the ones that come to free events. If you want to really provide access to free opportunities to excluded/hard to reach families you need to do more than advertise them widely . Their parents need to have trust built up, they need to be really encouraged to attend, there might be other barriers to attendance- how do they get there, can their little siblings come, will their parents feel uncomfortable because it’s unfamiliar location. Will their mental health that day be ok. Etc etc

it being free isn’t the only thing that breaks down barriers to participation.

Kids that come to free events often have parents who could pay £5 for it.

75% attendance sounds pretty standard?

Honestly OP, 75% is pretty good! I think next time if you go in with different expectations you won't feel like this.

Indeed.

75% attendance rate is really good, even for a paid for event, let alone a free one. I would guess this is your first planned event? Don’t take it to heart, those are acceptable numbers.

It wasn’t a complete waste of time. You got 75% of people to turn up over several weekends. That’s a lot of people reached.

What's the actual numbers? 25% could be 2 people or 200 people.

By the time you allow for sick kids, people forgetting, running late, rain if its outside, big football tournament on etc, a 75% turn out is good going.

I run free events for work. We usually go on 50% of our Eventbrite bookings actually showing. And these are organized adults with strong interest in the event. Stuff gets on top of people, things slip people's minds, family emergencies, illness, etc. I imagine there's even more going on for your target families. You can't take it personally.

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.

Did all of the above. Am most angry at all the local virtue signallers who didn’t bother taking up their free tickets!

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.

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

Yes - super easy to cancel beforehand so we can pass tickets on. That wasn’t an issue.

it was the fact that despite two prior emails asking for returns of likely no shows plus lots of social media stuff to say the same - on the day a good proportion (25%) just didn’t turn up.

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

Exactly what I was going to suggest

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.