The school carnival planning guide

Most school carnivals are organised by two or three volunteers who have never run one before, inherit a folder from whoever did it last year, and have about six weeks. This is written for them.

It is a planning document rather than a sales page. Where a number appears it is a real published price you can check, and where we do not know something, such as what your particular district requires, it says so instead of guessing.

Start with the two things that actually gate the date

It is tempting to start with the fun part and pick attractions. Do not. Two things determine whether your carnival happens on the day you want, and neither is equipment.

• Your district's paperwork. Approval, facility use, and insurance requirements differ by district. Anything needing board sign-off will not turn around in a week.
• The date itself. Saturdays in September and October are the busiest of the autumn for every rental company in the area, including us. The good dates go first.

Get those moving in week one and the rest of the plan has room to breathe.

An eight week timeline

Six weeks is workable. Eight is comfortable. If you have twelve, you are in excellent shape and can skip ahead.

Weeks 8 to 7: lock the frame

• Pick the date and a rain date, if your venue allows one.
• Submit whatever your district requires for facility use and event approval.
• Ask the district, in writing, what insurance documentation it needs from vendors, and in what form.
• Set a total budget and decide whether this is a fundraiser or a break-even community event. That single decision changes every later choice.

Weeks 6 to 5: the site walk

• Walk the space with a custodian or facilities lead. This is the most valuable hour in the whole plan.
• Count working outdoor outlets and note where they are. Not where they should be, where they are.
• Measure your usable footprint, then subtract the fire lanes, doors and walkways you cannot block.
• Get quotes. Ask for the certificate of insurance at quote stage, not after you pay.

Weeks 4 to 3: commit

• Book equipment and pay deposits. Ours are 50% of the total order, and a credit card is required for the deposit.
• Open volunteer signups. Work out your slots from your actual layout, not from a guess.
• Confirm the indoor fallback and which attractions can move into it.

Weeks 2 to 1: the details

• Publish the layout and the volunteer roster.
• Confirm delivery and pickup windows in writing, including who will be on site to receive.
• Brief booth volunteers on their game and on who to fetch if something goes wrong.

The day

• Someone with a phone and authority meets the delivery crew. Name that person in advance.
• Walk the site once everything is up, before the first family arrives.

What it actually costs

These are prices read from our own product pages, so you can check every one. They exclude delivery, which is charged separately and based on the miles to your event location. Setup and takedown are included in the rental price.

Carnival games. We currently list 38 of them, from $25 to $899. The most common price is $65, and 14 of the 38 sit at that price, which makes budgeting unusually easy: a row of six classic booth games is around $390.

• $65 each: Mini Cornhole, Outlaws Knockdown Game, Winter Ring Toss and eleven others at the same price.
• $125 to $150: Anti Gravity, Giant Yard Pong, Fore in a Row Golf.
• Headline attractions: 3 Hole LED Mini Golf $399, 6 Hole $599, 9 Hole $899.

Concessions. Reading the product pages today, the Cotton Candy Machine, Popcorn Popper and Snow Cone Machine are each from $115, and the Carnival Treat Shop is from $295. For a fundraiser these are usually the highest margin thing on the field, because the consumables are cheap and the queue is self-sustaining.

Staffing. Our published rate for event attendants is $75 per hour, described on our FAQ as being to manage large events. Most school carnivals run booth games on parent volunteers and use paid attendants only for the largest attractions. Work out which is which early, because it moves both the budget and the volunteer count.

A worked example. Six $65 games, a cotton candy machine and a popcorn popper comes to $620 before delivery. That is arithmetic on the published prices above, not a package we sell, and your delivery fee depends on your address.

The power and layout checklist

This is where carnivals actually come unstuck, and it is entirely preventable.

Power

• Inflatables run a blower continuously the whole time they are up. Every unit lists its 110V outlet requirement on its own product page, and the larger ones list more than one.
• Concession machines draw power as well, and they tend to be sited where the queue works rather than where the outlets are.
• Count the outlets that work. A custodian can tell you in five minutes which ones are dead.
• If there is not enough, this is solvable rather than fatal. Our FAQ states it plainly: "If a 110V outlet is not available, such as at a park, we can provide a power generator for an additional charge." Flag it when you book, because it changes your total.

Space

• Our published rule is a minimum of 2 ft of clearance on all sides of an inflatable, and every unit publishes its own space required figure. Measure against that figure, not against the unit's own dimensions.
• Look up as well as down. Overhead lines, basketball hoops and low branches all sit in the height range of a typical unit.
• Surfaces are flexible: we can set up on grass, pavement, or indoors.
• On grass, one thing to raise with your facilities lead before the day: our units are staked into the ground for stability and safety, and the renter is responsible for having all utilities located prior to the event. On a school field, that is a conversation with the district rather than something a PTO should decide alone.

The paperwork to ask for in writing

Requirements differ by district, so we will not tell you what yours needs. We can tell you what to ask both parties for, because this is the item most likely to delay everything.

From your district, ask: what documentation it requires from an outside vendor, whether the school or district must be named as an additional insured, what coverage limits it expects, and the deadline for having it on file.

From any vendor, ask: for a certificate of insurance showing general liability coverage, with a policy period that covers your event date, issued to the school or district as your district specifies. A company with real coverage sends it quickly. One that describes it instead of sending it is telling you something.

For what it is worth on our side, every KidZone team member is trained in SIOTO Advanced Inflatable Safety Operations standards, and we carry full general liability coverage for every event we deliver, licensed and insured in the State of Indiana.

Weather, and the fallback you should decide early

For inflatables the limits are not negotiable: bouncers cannot be used if there are winds of 20 mph or more, and cannot be used in the rain. Deposits are 50% of the total order and are non-refundable, but you will be able to apply your deposit to a future event.

The move that saves a school carnival is deciding the indoor fallback in week seven rather than on the morning. Since we can set up on grass, pavement, or indoors, knowing which of your gyms, cafeterias and covered walkways can take which units turns a washout into a room change instead of a cancellation.

Small things that make the day easier

• Tickets or wristbands, decided early. It changes your volunteer count more than anything else on the field.
• Put concessions where the queue has room. The line will be longer than you think and it should not cross a game booth.
• Name a single point of contact for every delivery. Two people half-managing it is how equipment ends up in the wrong place.
• Brief volunteers on their specific game. Five minutes each prevents most of the day's small problems.
• Return equipment clean. Our FAQ notes a cleaning fee of $25 and up for units returned excessively dirty, which on a field day of mud and snow cones is worth a word to the volunteers.

Where to look at the options

Our full range with prices on every unit is on the carnival game rentals page. As our own catalog puts it, carnival games are the perfect party rental item for a school carnival, company picnic, fundraiser, or church fair.

If you are pricing a whole event rather than a couple of items, our FAQ has a line for exactly that: "For a custom quote covering multiple units, school events, or corporate events, call (317) 316-8465 or email info@bountifulentertainment.com."

Common questions