The first carnival for a new school is fast approaching and I need some input.
We have 3 elementary schools in the district and we are the only one sponsoring a carnival. In the past most tickets for games cost .25 each. The cost of the games range from 2 to 6 tickets. 6 for inflatables bouncy house. For football, basketball, face painting/tattoos, and dunk tank three shot for 4 tickets. Cake/book walk, at the races, birthday game 3 tickets, duck pond and lollipop tree and bean bag toss 2 tickets. What is the average that you charge per game? Our food is also purchased with tickets with meal deals costing 12 tickets or $3. For example, this includes hot dog, chips and drink. Some of my committe seems to think these prices are too high! Your input please!

Our school has a carnival/fun day in October, usually just before Halloween, and the last day of spirit week. We have a blow-up slide and jump. And we have lots of little games, like football toss, duck pond, etc. We have face painting and tattoos too. Of course, what's a carnival without food? We have Kool-Aid and popcorn and other snacks.
2 weeks to the day before the carnival, students may purchase tickets at .25/ticket. Or they can purchase an armband for $10. Everything is one ticket, except the blow-ups, which are 2 tickets. I think I remember that correctly. There are no ticket sales the day of the carnival.
This makes it easier for the kids, no matter what age. As a parent and a volunteer helper that day, I like the ticket idea. It's almost better than Chuck-E-Cheese...lol

Our school has a Fall Festival. Most if not all of our items are donated. I think the price should reflect this. If parents and the community supply cakes, prizes, money, and their time to work and put it all together. the prices should be reasonable. If priced to high the community feels cheated because after all they are paying for it twice. I think the arm band is a great idea, the food is always just sold by cash. You could print food coupons and sell them for whatever a plate cost. When planning remember to TAKE everything into account. Our community is always ready to help as long as they can afford to play... I mention this because we had a new committee that over priced everything a few years back..$2.00 to pick up ducks, book walk (some used books),and cake walk, all prizes were donated ... Our start up was, we asked businesses to sponsor a booth for $100 and up. We had several for each grade, and each grade had a booth. We also had a contest and the best booth won money for their classrooms... Hope this helps... Good Luck