PTA summer fair - need inspiration

[melrose]

Calling all PTA members. I am currently chair of our PTA and we run a successful Xmas and Summer fair each year. We raised almost £4000 at summer fair last year, but some of the games and stalls are feeling a bit tired. so what works really well at your summer fair?

The Pimms stand, always my first port of call

You will need some sort of license though, but presumably its worth the faff and expense as our christmas fair has a mulled wine stand and summer fair has a pimms tent

Ducking stool-with headmaster in it was the most popular one at my primary.

Our PTA funds a sort of "focus day" for the children a couple of weeks before the fair which fits in with the theme of the summer fair. So far, we've done line dancing classes for a Wild West themed fair, a circus skills day for a circus theme and Samba classes for a Mardi gras theme. Then, for the week leading up to the fair, and at the fair itself, there is a stall selling associated accessories - juggling balls, spinning plates, red noses, clown wigs etc. The children then all take part in a performance outside at the fair, which encourages everyone to come along, and bring grandparents etc.

Candy floss always goes down well. So does nail painting.

Thanks, we do pimms (and wine and beer) and BBQ and ice creams, refreshments always do well. Need ideas to refresh our stalls and games

i did a stall last year at our summer fair that was busy.

you will need lots of empty wine bottles and some full.

set the bottles out in sets of 4.3 empty and one full. cover with gift bags.

pay £1 to try and win the full bottle. you lift the gift bag to reveal a full or empty bottle.

Agree with DeWe that throwing wet sponges at a teacher is always popular but you need a willing teacher!!

Nail painting also always popular. We also have an upturned golf umbrella where people try to chip a golf ball into the umbrella but I can't remember what the prize was if you managed it

soft toy stall is insanely popular. year 5 run it and every teddy is sold with a certificate that has its new name and its new owner on.
year 6 run an assortment of games of chance or skill ( like beat the goalie) to win sweets.
the great egg toss involves most of ks2 and parents paying 50p to take part.

I have two words for you:

RAINBOW LOOM

'Twas the most massively successful stall at our recent Spring Fair. A large table of about a dozen (borrowed) Rainbow Looms, a zillion teeny tiny elastics and tons of children queuing up for their turn at weaving and snapping.

The karaoke was also very popular.

School gives all the kids an empty plastic flower pot. They decorate it and fill with small toy/sweets/nail varnish/general tat. They are then sold on the stall for varying amounts - £2 - £5 dependant on contents. Sells out within an hour. Makes loads of money! Mostly, the kids scrap to buy back their own or the ones with the most sweets!

Pancakes/crepe makers - inexpensive ingredients but sell for a good profit.
A favourite locally which our PFA and WI have run is the 'Human Fruit Machine' - you have 3 children and a bowl of identical fruit for each, you need to make a stall which means the children stand in a row but can't see each other and then the punter has their turn, you could say 'go' or have a pretend lever to pull and each child picks up a piece of fruit and you win if they match.
Kids line up to be the fruit pickers
Another idea I've seen was very similar to the empty flower pot one, but using jam jars - each jar has a little prize in it, some worth more than others, but it's a prize every time tombola - £1 a ticket and you always win something.

our summer event last year sold strawberry and marshmallow kebabs - with about 2 or 3 of each on (depending on size) and sold for about a pound -really popular.

our winter event this year sold finger lights for 50p each which sold loads - we got ours from ebay from a UK supplier that sold to clubs and discos in large quantities, the number we got they worked out about 11.5p each so a really good mark up. You could get them slightly cheaper if you ordered them from a Chinese supplier (like 10.5-11p) but we preferred to get ours from the UK supplier not least as we didn't have enough time to order from abroad when we thought about doing it and the price differential wasn't that big.

if you've got somebody who is good at taking pictures and formatting quickly, how about some sort of photo booth? Take 3 shots say for a pound or 20 for a fiver and email them so no printing costs. Or charge another pound to put onto a disk. If you had a few fun accessories you might be able to get lots of leavers wanting group shots with their friends.