Stall ideas for summer fair

[Julietta05]

Hi,

I am looking for suggestions stalls for Summer Fair. Can you please throw some ideas...
Has anyone done mocktail stall, if so how was it set up and what did you offer?

bottle tombola
fun and games tombola
teddy tombola / rehoming tables
white elephant
books
plants

teas, coffees cakes

guess the name
guess the number of ....
pick a square games (eg find the treasure)
pick a cocktail umbrella / lollipop, coloured end = prize
splat the rat
knock down tins
sponge throwing (at whatever / whoever)

Aimed at the children or the adults?

Teddy tombola

Raffle! How could I forget that?!

Raffle and tombolas are good money spinners.
The games are fun for the children.

Very much depends on how much help you are likely to have...

Have you ever done Bat the rat Northern classic!! Bit of drain pipe screwed to a stand drop in a rat fashioned from and old sock and a bean bag . Three goes for a £1 to bat the rat . Small prize if you hit it.

Also have done a ladder game where you has to throw beanbags in consecutive rungs and had adult and children leader boards You keep throwing them until you miss. We offered a small prize for the kids if they hit 10 in a row and then two nice prizes for each top of leader board. Really simple really fun. Haven’t seen it in many places.

No answer if it's for adults or kids but if it's for the children - don't bother with mocktails. They won't be interested.
Most of what has been suggested above is usually pretty good.
Top tip - keep it simple. If you have a book stall make everything 50p - no faffing around with different prices. Too time consuming.

Fuckloads of cake

Face painting, nail painting, temporary tattoos

Guess the sweets in the jar / weight of the jar / weight of the cake

Paint a tile and take it home

Brilliant one at our summer fair last year that I've never seen before. Tarpaulin covered with compost and mini metal detectors. Kids pay £1 to have a go and have to find 5 different types of coin (not current money) and then they win a few sweets.

I like skills games best.

Clothes peg game. How many clothes pegs can you peg on to a washing line in 1 minute. The winner gets a prize.

Flower pot game. How many marbles can you put through an upside down flower pot in one minute using only a spoon and not your hands to touch marbles. Winner gets a prize.

How far can you kick a football? £1 a go. You get some very competitive Dads wanting a go. Categories Adult females over 13, Adult males over 13, under 12's, under 7. Winner in each category win a football. You might be able to get a sports shop to donate the footballs.

Treasure Hunt. Use a large board with sand on. Put coordinates eg letters and numbers bury a couple £1 coins, 3 50p coins, and a 5 x 20p pieces. Make sure coins are buried under the centre of the square. Give them a spoon to dig with. Have wet wipes on hand to wipe off fingers.

Guess how many sweets in a jar. Winner person closest to correct number. If 2 winners tiebreak with a second smaller jar. Runner up wins smaller jar.

Lucky dip with small prizes costing approximately £1. Charge £2.50 per dip.

Plant stall. Ask parents for plant donations before event. Also take cuttings and grow on in potting compost. Popular after the end of May.

Name the Teddy bear. Give Teddy a really common name it is likely someone will choose and put name it in a sealed envelope. Name guesses written on a large piece of paper with their mobile number next to it in case they win. £1 a go. If no one wins the bear. Sell it to the highest bidder at the end of the fate.

I've got a candy floss maker so might do that.

I hope you have sunshine.

The kids like games! Cheap stuff they can do for 50p a turn.

Depending on your demographic if you want to make more money, and it's outside in the summer then get a Temporary Event Notice for the licence and do a Pimm's stall with mocktail alternative (with Belvoir Raspberry & lemon or something). It's hard work but can make quite a lot.

The other one which makes more money than you'd think is Hook-a-duck, but you obviously need the ducks and pond! Also fun is have a load of glass jam jars laid out and you get 5 ping pong balls and try to get the ball in a jar. One jar marked as a better prize of some kind and the others get a smaller prize.

Agree. But if games have pries make sure the pricing is set so you make a profit.

I'm a believer in having various low cost games as I think it keeps people at the fair longer, enabling them to have second / third goes on tombolas etc.

Children can run games if overseen by a responsible adult, but it is more people you need to run things ...

I ran a soft drinks stall at our Summer Fair.
The drinks were - Summer Serenade - orange and lemonade
Pipping Punch - apple juice and lemonade
and
Sunset Song -pink cordial and lemonade.
All served in see through plastic cups.
I made lots of fruit kebabs on cocktail sticks and added one to each cup. - grape, orange and strawberry and had a big bag of ice.
Stall up with parasol, fruit and flowers!

The stall looked lovely and the drinks were easy to make. Most work went into making up the kebabs. No other drinks were available at the fair so we sold lots and lots of them.

Hook a duck, especially if it is a hot day! Cheap prizes if they hook certain numbers. Little kids love it so do big kids. Swap the numbers that win a prize every so often because some kids are very smart at noticing slight differences in the ducks.

Another one needs some large playing cards if you can get hold of them , but normal sized cards will also work. Deal out one card face up. Will the next card be higher or lower? If they guess correctly then will the next card be higher or lower…… if they guess wrong their turn is over. If they get seven guesses in a row correct then they win 50 p, or another prize ( we used to do a money prize because the chances were they would spend it on the same game or something else, so the money didn’t leave the playground!) 20 p a go.

We also used to run a sweet stall, really cheap sweets like jelly worms in huge tubs from somewhere like Costco ( make sure no gelatine). One sweet from each tub into a small bag. You need lots of tongs, and the adult does the picking out.

I also remember a biscuit decorating stall. 20p buys a digestive biscuit which can be decorated with glacé icing and a variety of toppings like hundreds and thousands. Messy and very unhygienic but the table would be filled with decorators for the duration.

Facepainting if you know someone who can do it quickly and efficiently.

If two or more people choose the same name then there will be tears. An alternative is that you think up and print out a huge list of names in advance , blowing up A4 sheets onto A3 makes it easier ( include the secret winning name - chosen by an independent judge ! - and put in a sealed envelope) Then they choose a name from the list write their name in the box next to it with contact details. That way no duplications. Make the teddy look as attractive as possible with a ribbon and balloon , displayed in a cellophane bag with bows of wrapping ribbon etc, you want to attract the indulgent parents and grannies who will pay 50 p a guess. you could have two toys and two ( different ) lists for those with more than one child……..

I don't know what it is called ( maybe Winner Takes All?) but a parent at a school I worked in sold ‘tickets’ to win £50.

To take part. Each adult (20 needed) paid £5.00 and returned at a given time.

Returning, the 20 adults stood in a large circle so that everyone could see them, parent in the middle with a list of questions. .

Parent, (preferably with microphone) read out the series of questions
“leave the circle if... you are wearing a blue shirt
“leave the circle if you are wearing black shoes…have no children, drive a red car, are wearing a watch….etc.

Until one person is left, who wins the £50, leaving the fair with £50.

Tickets to do it again are sold to the crowd watching this take place.

I was really impressed at how easy and quick it was to make £50. No setting up of tables, no donations needed, very visual and kept people at the fair until it had taken place.

In a big fair, this took place every hour, making £150.

You do need a parent with a ‘big personality’ to lead it though.

@viques if people write guess their name down with mobile number everyone can see these names are already taken so must choose something different.

Have two types of stall. One for fun, run by nice people, games and the like.

the bar, the tómbola, the raffle, chocolate tómbola. These make money and should be run by serious people.

if you don’t know what makes what then do both this year and make notes for next year

We always make loads on facepainting, as long as:

• you don't overcharge
• you're honest about what you're capable of!
• you do bits of faces instead of fancy crap.

I cut up loads of pallets to make some rainbow ones and then its super quick to do a rainbow star type thing, tigers are easy and so is spider web. Those 3 cover most demographics tbh!

Judging by DNephew’s summer fair last summer most parents were gagging for alcohol so I’d probably not say mocktails! But maybe include soft drinks. It was also a boiling hot day though hence alcohol. Things like churros and pancakes go down really well.

They had a local petting sort of zoo bring parrots, lizards and other animals along. That seemed popular.

There was also a good vintage clothes stall where I spent money.

Most things like tin can knock down stalls, and various food and drink worked well.

At a local street shop and market fair (held twice a year) I went to last weekend, there were at least 3-4 face painting stalls!

They also have a woman who dresses up as a fairy with her dog and she was leading the maypole dancers, that was popular.

The hook a duck is good, plus bobbing for apples or things, throwing sponges at people in those cut out seaside costumes. Anything to taunt adults. 😂

That sounds brilliant!

One of our local schools used to get everyone to bring in a jar filled with bits and pieces : hair bands, sweets, little toys etc. They all decorated them in class vaguely to the theme of the fair that year. Each class had a winner who was named in the newsletter. The jars were then all out on a table in categories (boys/girls) with a raffle ticket stuck to them. They were then sold for £1 and you picked out a ticket at random and got that jar. Slightly depends on whether you think your school parents would take part but that could raise up to c£400 for a 2-form entry primary.

Yes, not summer but the Easter egg tombola.

Quick £200 for 20 minutes at the end of school as we break for Easter.

Easter eggs are cheap to buy (£1) each so every family could donate. Tickets went so fast.