Great ideas. Thanks. Maybe I can find someone who did one and then realized how much work it is and wants to get rid of some props etc.

You should contact a local apple orchard and see what they did--- maybe find out where the haunted houses are and who runs them and talk to them-- they might even have some old pieces that you can borrow--

That's amazing. I wonder what we could do with $7,000??? We wouldn't know where to start. We have a concession chairperson, a games chairperson and an activities chairperson (for crafts, pumpkin decorating, donut eating etc.). We just approved the idea for a "haunted hayride". We have our festival on the 3rd Saturday in October and a lot of the prizes are spiritwear kinds of things with stuffed animals, posters, candy mixed in. We utilize a core group of die-hard volunteers and supplement with anyone we can find that gets excited about it. It's difficult when you are really in love with an event (like I am with Harvest Festival) and you see people who are upset about helping and resentful of any time they contribute. Don't they get it? IT'S ALL FOR THE KIDS!!!

I searched for haunted hayride and got some info. But it's not really specific. Does anyone have info that worked or BETTER YET that didn't work. We don't do auctions, ours is more carnival-y. But I don't even know where to start with the hayride. I am going to start with a brainstorming session with some members and probably our children. Because, after all, they are the toughest critics.

Good Luck to everyone on whatever event you're working on next.

We have a larger school - 700 students. Our budget for Fall Festival is $7,000 and we clear $20,000+

We have a live and silent Auction (which brings in about $10,000), games, and food.

We get lots of donations for auction items, food, and game booths.

Hosting a festival is A LOT of work and takes hundereds of volunteer hours, BUT can really pay off for your school. The key is good organization, and a breakdown of good committee chairs.

Love the corn stalk game-- things like this are wonderful for no budget events...

Hi, I'm new to the boards and all I can say is WOW! You guys have soooo much info on here. One thing I can add about budget, is that when you really have NO budget to begin with, it makes you get really creative. Everything we use is either made, donated or borrowed. Then after we have exhausted all other resources, we begin to ask for money for prizes etc. As an example, we needed a new game to keep things fresh for the kids, so we saved empty ring pop containers and attached a clipart cutout of an ear of corn to the front, then we took the containers and attached them to a pole that had some free corn stalks tied to it. Voila, instant toss the ping pong ball into the corn stalk bucket. (sorry it doesn't have a fancy name but we try to keep it "harvest-y").