Six weeks out: pick the date before you pick the attractions
Friday evenings from 5:30 to 8:30 outperform Saturdays for school carnivals in our area. Families are already coming to pick up kids, ball practice is done, and nobody has to give up a weekend morning. Check the district calendar for testing weeks and home football games first, then lock the date.
Pick a rain date at the same time you pick the date. Writing both on the flyer from day one saves you a panicked round of texts if a August thunderstorm rolls through Swansea at four o'clock.
Five weeks out: set the wristband price and open presales
Unlimited play wristbands are the cleanest model. One price, no ticket booth math, no lines at a token table. Families understand it instantly because it is how every fair they have been to works.
Presales are not just early money. They tell you how many kids to expect, which decides whether you need one inflatable or three zones.
| Night | Presale | At the door | When to use it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $15 | $20 | Inflatables, obstacle course and yard games |
| Premium | $20 | $25 | Foam zone or bumper cars on the field, or a four hour night |
Four weeks out: send the sponsor emails
This is the step schools skip, and it is the step that decides whether the night nets $1,200 or $4,000. Local businesses in Swansea, Gaston and Pelion sponsor school nights because their name ends up on a sign in front of a few hundred parents.
We hand you the sponsor sheet and a paste ready email. Attraction sponsorships run $400 to $500 and an event sponsorship is $1,000. Three of those and the package is covered before a single wristband sells.
Two weeks out: draw the field
Every layout follows the same rule. Wristband table at the entrance, food in the middle, loud attractions at the far end away from the road, and toddler units where parents can sit and see them.
We draw the layout to your actual field or gym so the blower cords never cross a walking lane and nobody has to run an extension across a parking aisle.
- Grass or ball field: everything is available, including foam and the 42 foot Carolina Gauntlet.
- Gym floor: sandbag anchoring and protective tarp. No foam on a finished floor.
- Asphalt lot: sandbags again, and we sweep for gravel and glass before anything unrolls.
- Keep at least one power circuit per blower and never chain two blowers on one household run.
The numbers, using a real package price
Book the Carolina Family Fun Night at $1,295 and sell unlimited play wristbands at $20 with a $15 presale. You break even at 65 wristbands at the door price. A school with 400 students clears that in presales most of the time.
Sell 175 wristbands and you are around $3,500 in admissions against a $1,295 package. Add a concession stand and three sponsors and the night usually beats an entire season of catalog sales, with one evening of work instead of six weeks of order forms.
Night of: the volunteer sheet
Our crew handles the attractions, the rider rotation and the safety calls. Your volunteers handle money and food. That split is why school nights with us take four volunteers instead of fifteen.
- Two at the wristband table, one with a cash box and one with the phone reader
- Two to four on concessions depending on whether you are cooking
- One floater with a radio or a phone who can find the principal fast
- One person on cleanup with trash bags, starting an hour before the end