Hiring a balloon artist or face painter

Booking an entertainer works differently from booking equipment. You cannot add one to a cart, you have to set up their station yourself, and the number of hours you need comes from simple arithmetic once you know one figure.

Start with the twenty

Our balloon artist page publishes the rate outright: the artist can create approximately 20 balloon designs per hour, depending on the complexity of each creation and the number of guests taking part.

Divide your expected number of children by 20 and you have your hours:

• 60 children is about 3 hours, which at $165 per hour is $495.
• 100 children is about 5 hours, which is $825.

Compare that second line with the length of your event. If your party runs two and a half hours, one artist working at that rate reaches about 50 of the 100 children.

The fix is a second artist, if one is available on your date, so ask when you call. Two artists covering 100 guests is still 5 artist-hours and still $825, and it fits inside a two and a half hour event.

The thing you have to provide

This works the opposite way from the rest of our catalog.

When we deliver an inflatable, we bring it, set it up and take it down, and that is included in the price. When you book an entertainer, both pages say the customer has to provide a table and chairs, plus suitable shelter for the artist.

Their workstation is your job. That means three things:

• Put it on the setup list next to the equipment. A table and chairs are easy to arrange and easy to forget.
• Put it on the layout. Decide where the station goes when you draw the site, and put it somewhere visible but out of the traffic path.
• Shelter means shade too. In July it is sun cover, in October it is rain cover. Either way it is a canopy, and it is yours to bring.

If you do not own a table and canopy, they are on the same order form as everything else, so add them rather than borrowing one on the morning.

You cannot book this online

Both pages say it directly: balloon artist bookings cannot be completed online, and face painting cannot be booked online either.

The reason given is that this is a personalized entertainment service, so availability and event details have to be discussed by phone. Raise it in the same call as your equipment rather than leaving it until later, because availability is confirmed by phone.

Balloon artist or face painter?

Both are from $165 per hour and they sit in the same range, so the choice is about what your event needs rather than what it costs.

Balloon artists make designs guests take away: children's favorite animals, playful figures, hats or flowers. The result leaves with the child, so it doubles as a party favor, and it is the one with a published number of designs per hour you can plan around.

Face painters offer a variety of designs to choose from, including patterns, animals, characters or masks, and guests can pick a simple design or ask for a more detailed full-face painting.

Face painting is harder to plan by the hour. We do not publish how many face painting designs an artist completes per hour. The 20-per-hour figure is for balloon artists only. A quick cheek design and a full face take different amounts of time, and our page offers both, so tell us your headcount and which style you want when you call.

The rest of the range, at the same rate

Our entertainers range is six services, and five of them are the same price:

• From $165 per hour: Balloon Artist, Face Painting, Airbrush Body Art, Caricature Artist, and Glitter Tattoos / Glimmer Body Art.
• From $225 per hour: DJ Services.

Because five of the six are the same rate, you can pair two different services for a bigger crowd. Two artists at two stations reach as many children as one artist working twice as long, in half the time, and they give people a reason to walk to both ends of your site.

Entertainers and attendants are separate lines

Both show up on a quote as an hourly person, but they are different services.

Our published rate for event attendants is $75 per hour to manage large events. An entertainer is $165 per hour, ninety dollars more.

If you have an inflatable and a balloon artist, book them as separate lines, and ask when you call whether your event needs an attendant.

Why this works when the weather does not

Inflatables have firm limits: bouncers cannot be used in winds of 20 mph or more, and cannot be used in the rain. Those limits are written about bouncers. An artist at a table under a canopy, or indoors, suits an event that has to go ahead whatever the forecast.

Before you call

• Your expected number of children, which sets the hours.
• How long your event runs, which tells you whether to ask for a second artist.
• Which service, and for face painting, whether you want quick designs or full faces.
• Whether you have a table, chairs and shelter, or need them on the order.
• What the hour covers at your event specifically. Ask, rather than assuming.

Common questions