How to run a trunk or treat

A trunk or treat is one of the easiest community events to start and one of the easiest to underestimate. There is no field to book, no ticketing, and the decorations arrive in the trunks of the cars. Most of the work is done by families who volunteer a parking space and an afternoon.

Then the day comes and it turns out the only working outlet is on the far side of the building, the inflatable cannot be pegged into asphalt, it is dark by the time the line builds, and every child on site is carrying a bag of candy. None of those are difficult problems if you plan for them in August.

Every number below is a price or a policy published on our own site, so you can check each one.

The parking lot changes three things

If you have run a school carnival on a field or in a gym, most of your instincts carry over. Three do not, and they are the three that cost money.

1. Anchoring

Our FAQ says we can set up on grass, pavement, or indoors, so a parking lot is a normal request and not a special favor. The detail to raise when you book is how the unit gets secured. Our published method is that our units are staked into the ground for stability and safety, and asphalt does not take a stake.

How a unit is anchored on pavement depends on the unit and the surface, and we do not publish it, so ask when you book and say it is a parking lot in your first message. If any part of the layout will sit on a grass strip or an island instead, mention that too: the renter is responsible for having all utilities located prior to the event, and a grass strip can hide a sprinkler line or a buried cable.

2. Power

An inflatable is not powered once and left alone. Its blower runs continuously for the whole event, which means it needs a working circuit for the entire evening. Our requirement is that the inflatable should be within 100 ft of a 110V outlet. We supply the power cord, and we ask that nothing else be plugged into the outlet being used.

On a parking lot, check the exterior outlets: they can be further away than they look, dead, or already carrying the sound system or the coffee urn. Walk the site with whoever holds the keys, find every outlet, plug something in and confirm it works, and then draw your layout around what you found. If there is no usable outlet, we can provide a power generator for an additional charge, which is a normal and planned-for solution rather than a rescue, as long as you tell us before the day.

3. Light

An October evening event in Indiana runs into darkness partway through, and that changes your layout more than your schedule: lines need to be visible, the walking route between the cars and any attraction needs to be lit, and the drop-off point has to be obvious to a driver. String lights and battery lanterns on the trunks can cover much of it, but make lighting somebody's job in advance rather than a discovery at 6:30.

The candy problem, which is the one that costs money

Candy is specific to this format, and it can lead to a cleaning charge.

Our safety rules say: absolutely no gum, food, drinks, candy or silly string in the unit. The rules go on to say that these items, especially silly string, are very harmful to the vinyl, and that violation of this rule can result in additional charges for cleaning. Our published cleaning fee is $25 and up.

At a trunk or treat, every child on site is carrying a bag of candy, so plan how to keep it out of the unit.

The fix costs nothing and takes one volunteer:

• Put distance in the layout. Site the inflatable at the opposite end from where the candy route starts and finishes.
• Make one entrance. A single way in gives you a single place to ask, rather than four sides to watch.
• Combine the bag drop with the shoes. Children must remove their shoes prior to entering the unit anyway, so you already need a stop at the door. Bags go in the same crate as the shoes.
• Brief the volunteer at the door. One adult who knows the rule can enforce it, and a sign is hard to read in the dark.

Cars and safety

The format puts children and moving vehicles in the same space, which is worth ten minutes of planning before anything else gets decided.

A simple approach: every participating car is parked and switched off before the first family arrives, and nothing moves again until the event is over. That turns the parking lot into a pedestrian space for the evening and removes the problem rather than managing it. It does mean deciding in advance where arriving families park, ideally a separate area with a marked walking route in.

Two of our published safety rules matter here as well, because they are easy to trip over at a fall event. Adult supervision is required at all times when children are in or around the unit, and units must not be used near water or when fireworks are being used or will be used. If your evening includes a fire pit, a bonfire or anything pyrotechnic, make that layout decision now.

How many attractions you need

Plan around the line at each attraction.

Our published rider capacities show how many children one inflatable holds at a time:

• 15x15 bounce house: 8 children up to age 8, 6 aged 9 to 12, 4 teens, 4 adults.
• 13x13 bounce house: 6 children up to age 8, 5 aged 9 to 12, 4 teens, 3 adults.
• 15x18 combo: 10 children up to age 8, 6 to 8 aged 9 to 12, 4 to 5 teens, 4 adults.

Our FAQ notes that these numbers are only a guideline and that the unit itself carries the specific number allowed at one time. A single unit only holds a handful of children at a time, so it sets the pace of its line. Because our rules ask you to keep smaller children out of the unit while older children are jumping, a mixed-age evening works better with a separate, stated time slot for the little ones.

Games cost a fraction as much, and several running at once spread the crowd across the lot.

On space, if you are fitting an inflatable between marked bays, our published requirement is a minimum of 2 ft of clearance on all sides, on ground that is flat and free of debris, and most units list their own Space Required figure on the product page. Measure the bays rather than counting them.

What it costs

These are prices read from our own product pages, so every one is checkable. 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, and our standard rental is up to 6 hours.

Games. We list 38 carnival games, from $25 to $899, and 14 of them are $65. That makes budgeting unusually easy: a row of eight booth games is $520. Two of the $65 games are a natural fit for the season, Zombie Knock Down and Troll Dentist, and the rest of the row can be ordinary carnival games. At the cheaper end there is a Tug of War Rope at $25, Table Top Jenga at $35 and Corn Hole at $45.

Concessions. The Cotton Candy Machine and the Popcorn Popper are each from $115, and the Carnival Treat Shop is from $295. We do also rent a Snow Cone Machine at the same $115, and we would gently suggest not booking it for an October night in Indiana.

If you want a centerpiece. Our Mechanical Pumpkin is from $1,750. That is a different order of spend and it is not what most trunk or treats need, but it is the fall-specific attraction in our catalog and it suits a much larger community event.

Staffing. Our published rate for event attendants is $75 per hour, described on our FAQ as being to manage large events. If volunteers run the game booths, consider a paid attendant at the inflatable, where adult supervision is required at all times.

A worked example. Eight $65 games, a cotton candy machine and a popcorn popper comes to $750 before delivery. That is arithmetic on the published prices above rather than a package we sell, and your delivery fee depends on your address.

Weather, and the decision to make now

For inflatables the limits are firm and they are not judgment calls on the night. Bouncers cannot be used if there are winds of 20 mph or more, and cannot be used in the rain.

Read one clause before you sign anything. If we set up the unit, and the weather later turns inclement, we will pick up the unit according to schedule, and in that event no refund will be given. Our deposits are 50% of the total order and are non-refundable, though you can apply a deposit to a future event.

Build the evening so the inflatable is a bonus rather than the backbone. Games, concessions and the cars themselves can carry on in weather that stops an inflatable, so the event still works if the bounce house cannot be used.

The paperwork, and why it sets your timeline

Get approvals started before you book equipment.

Ask your own church, school or district for its requirement in writing, because it differs between organizations and we cannot tell you what yours is. This is what is available from our side:

• A certificate of insurance. Proof of our general liability policy, downloadable from our site.
• Additional insured status. We can list your district or venue as additionally insured for an extra $25 charge per event. Contact us with the venue's exact legal name.
• A W9. On file for vendor setup with school district and corporate accounts payable, and downloadable too.

One timing note. If your event is in a public park rather than your own parking lot, start considerably earlier. Many parks require a permit to have an inflatable set up, and those can take as many as 10 days to process.

A four week run-up

Four weeks can work for a trunk or treat if the first week goes on approvals and the date rather than on equipment.

• Week 4: lock the date, start the approval and insurance request in writing, and put out the call for families to sign up a trunk. That last number changes everything else.
• Week 3: walk the site. Count and test outlets, measure the bays, and decide where participating cars park versus where families park. Book equipment now, especially for a date near Halloween.
• Week 2: draw the layout, including lighting, the walking route, and where the inflatable sits relative to the candy route. Settle the anchoring and power answers. Assign a named volunteer per station.
• Week 1: confirm your delivery window, brief volunteers on the shoes-off and no-food rules for the unit, and tell people what the wet-weather version of the evening looks like.

Where to look at the options

Our schools and churches page is the right starting point for this kind of event. It covers the package deals for youth organizations, and both the insurance certificate and the W9 are downloadable from it, which a school district or venue may ask you for.

Common questions