FunRent - About US

School Carnivals

Put our experience with school carnivals to work for you. We are part of more than 300 school events each year and know how to help. While we can't help on may of the duties required to put on a successful carnival, we can certainly take the stress out of the inflatables, carnival games, fun foods, and prizes. Here are some common questions and answers about school carnivals.

What's the best time to have a school carnival? The quick answer is anytime! The highest volume of carnivals is on Fridays in May and June. Realistically if you can schedule your carnival outside those days, the selection of equipment will be much better. Many schools have gone to fall carnivals with great results. Just let us know well in advance and we can work with you to schedule a great date. You may also want to consider a Saturday for your event. Most Friday night carnivals go three hours while Saturday carnivals can go five or even six hours.

When should we book the equipment? Try to book your equipment as soon as you can. Many of our repeat schools book a year in advance. While that's certainly not necessary, the sooner you book the greater the equipment selection. In general, you'll have the best selection of equipment if you book three months in advance of your carnival. Don't worry if you're not ready to book until closer to your event. We'll still be able to put together a great package for you.

How do we choose the right equipment? We have years of experience with over 300 school events each year. We can help. Most carnivals include inflatables, carnival games and fun foods. Some carnivals also include catered pizza and hot dogs. Just give us a call and we'll work with you. Here are some guidelines:

►	Inflatables. Inflatables add a great deal of fun and excitement to carnivals. They give the kids an outlet for all their pent-up energy and are great money makers for the event. We have hundreds of inflatables and will be happy to help you pick the right ones for your event. The fundamental inflatables for a carnival include a slide, an obstacle course, a bouncer, and a piece for the smaller kids. Depending on budget or fund-raising goals, many carnivals include other inflatables as well.

►	Carnival Games. Most three-hour carnivals need at least eight carnival games. If your carnival is very well attended, you will want more than eight. We divide our games into three basic categories.
		Instant Win. These are games where the player is an instant winner. The prize is usually an inexpensive trinket with a few higher level prizes available. Examples of instant win games are Fish 'n Snag, Lollypop Pick, and Pitch 'til You Win.
		Luck Games. These games involve a high degree of luck and every player has basically the same odds of winning. Prizes can be higher quality than the trinket prizes. Examples of luck games are Lucky Duck, Number Spin, Smiley Face Spin, and Ball Bounce.
		Skill Games. These games involve varying level of skills. They also have varying degrees of winning (based on points, colors, etc.). Prizes are usually higher quality. Examples are Bean Bag Toss, Skee Roll, Krazy Kans, and Fat Cats.
►	Fun Foods. Fun foods include cotton candy, sno cones, popcorn, nachos, and churros. We have everything you need from the machines to all the supplies.

►	Hot Dogs, Pizza, etc. To increase attendance and to provide a convenience for families, some carnivals include catered hot dogs and pizza. We provide hot dog and pizza catering as a service to our clients. Catering is not typically a money maker for the carnival. We take care of the shopping, food preparation, money handling, serving, and clean up. We cover our costs by charging diners. The usual offerings include hot dogs, pizza, bottled water and soda, popcorn, and a sweet offering such as churros or cotton candy.

What about prizes for the carnival games? Again, we can help. Generally speaking, most carnivals either hand out prizes to winners at the game or hand out tickets to winners that can be redeemed at the prize redemption room. Here's how it works:

►	Prizes at the Game. When a player wins, he or she gets a prize right at the game. This method lends itself to less expensive prizes. The upside is that you don't need to staff a redemption room. The downside is the kids wind up with lots of inexpensive prizes to carry around.

►	Redemption Room. With a redemption room, game winners are given redemption tickets at the games. Anytime during the event, but usually near the end, the player can redeem his or her tickets for prizes based on the value of the winning tickets accumulated. For instance, he or she can choose a valuable prize and redeem many winning tickets for that prize or could choose several smaller prizes instead. The upside to a redemption room is kids can win better prizes. The downside is it requires staffing.

How do I determine how many prizes to buy? With repeat carnivals, we usually go by last year's prize order and adjust it for anticipated growth in attendance, For newer carnivals, we have a few rules of thumb.

►	Prizes at the Game. With the "prize at the game" model, you would buy enough inexpensive prizes to cover the expected activity at each game. Generally speaking, you should expect to spend between 20% and 40% of your per play ticket price on prizes.

►	Redemption Room. With a redemption room, you want to provide a variety of prize choices, but not so many the kids spend too much time trying to decide. Too many choices can bring the prize redemption process to a grinding halt. We suggest having about seven prize levels with three to five choices in each level.

Confused? The good news is that we have developed some formulas based on our years of experience that can help you with your prize decisions. We realize prizes can get overwhelming. Just give us a call and we can simplify the process and make buying prizes quite easy.

Where can I buy prizes? From us! We carry a great supply of prizes in all price levels. When you buy your prizes from FunRent, we can deliver them with your inflatables and carnival games or you can pick them up at our Redmond office. That way you don't have to pay the incredible shipping and handling fees most prize vendors charge.We buy in huge quantities and pass the savings on to you. Just click on the prize icon below to go to our prize site: