Pay Per Face Event Rates...

Hello!

I am fairly new and doing my first pay-per-face event and it will be at a festival in Atlanta that expects 20,000 according to last years numbers. The booth fee is pretty high, (at least for me) $200. I don't know if that is common or not. The festival will be 8 hours long. I am thinking of charging $3, $5, and $7. I know that it all depends on speed/skill etc. but I was just wondering if any of you have had a similar type of event and if you think I will do ok charging these amounts. I mostly do birthdays and have done events at the mall so any advise you guys have would be great! Thanks alot!!!

Rosa

I saw on another thread to base your prices off of the beer & water prices.

How many hours is the event? If you calculate $5 & average 5 minutes a face you'll be making $60/hr, so it'll take you 3 1/2 hours to pay for your vendor fee.
This is why it's important to try & negotiate the price down. You explain that because you are selling a service & not a product, you are limited in how much $ you can make.
Now, you'll still benefit from hopeful, potential future clients, so it might be worth it as long as you strongly pursue future events/parties.

I did an event w/ another painter & a similar sized crowd(but there was crappy free face painting 4 tents down) & we made around $400 each.

Thanks! So would the water and beer price be based off the low and high end? I guess in any case it will be a good experience. I appreciate you getting back to me!

I would raise to at least $5, $7, and $10 for an event like that in Atlanta and lower if the crowd doesn't seem interested. You can always lower your prices in the middle of a festival, but good luck raising them.

First off, have you already paid the fee? If you haven't, I would seriously look at the numbers before you commit. Calculating in travel time, babysitting(if needed) and any other expenses. You want to be netting at least $100 per hour to make this worthwhile. Will you be able to do this.

I just feel like paying a booth fee is highly risky for face painters. If it rains, it is a total loss. I don't want to discourage you. Many painters do this with success, but I have also heard the total opposite. I would even hesitate without the booth fee.

I wish you the most success, I just wanted to know my concern. Please let us know how it works out.

As to the pricing, $5, $8 and $10 would be mine. Most will go for the $8 and hopefully leave you the $2 as a tip. Make sure that you have LOTS of ones as change and count out the change and paper clip it the night before. This will encourage tipping(they won't tip you a $10 bill, but if you give a $5 and 5 ones, they most likely will). Preparing the change ahead saves a lot of time.

-Metina

There's a good thread somewhere on here all about festivals, what to bring, etc. I'm not sure where... couldn't find it...

Thanks to all of you for your replies. Everyone is so helpful. I have not paid the fee yet. I am trying to talk it down. :O) I just have never done the pay per face and I just could not see myself paying that much but I totally see how I would need to charge that much to make the money back and then some. I am not sure if it will be worth the hassle in the end but I guess it will be a good experience. I am bringing my teenage niece along to man the line/$. I think it will make it go much faster.

Thanks!

Rosa

I will be sure to let you all know how it goes!

Glitterfly and I did an event in June together and split the $200 booth fee (that's a cheaper fee for around here) and it was a wonderful event. Despite several hours of rain each day over the 3 day event (and a nearby tornado overnight that caused me to lose my tent and have to buy another one) it was still quite successful and we both plan to do it again.... probably together

I attended a lecture about this time last year in Michigan where the speaker, Pat "Pitter Pat" Newton, said that the best way to gauge your prices is by your line. If it is really long and never ending, your prices are too low for the quality of your work. If the line is super short or often non-existent but there is plenty of people still AT the festival/event, then your prices are too high for the quality of your work/the average income of the area. I know in my area, a small community with a high unemployment rate and low wage jobs, the people can't really afford $10 faces, especially since the average number of kids per family here is 3. That's a lot of money for some people. I don't know what the economy is like in Atlanta, but my guess is it's better than tiny little La Porte, IN.

I agree with Metina and Wmeventservices on the idea for the pricing, but maybe start a bit high and bring it down depending on what the crowd does.

I know my reply is wayyyyy after the fact, but how did it go Rosa?

Here are some other things to consider for future events:

1. try to negotiate to pay a percentage or your earnings for events you have never done before. There is far less risk and you will know if the event is worth doing next year.

2. Ask the even coordinators if they have a press kit with demographics information. You will know more about what kind of patrons you can expect.

3. If the space is bigger than you need consider sharing it with another face painter or balloon twister

4. Be prepared to collect email addresses etc. by raffling off a face painting kit or whatever you would like to raffle off. While the child is in your chair have the parents enter their info onto a raffle ticket. If the event was not as successful as you would have liked, at least you have a list to market to.

5. Find a corporate sponsor to pay for your booth or obtain a list of past vendors of the event who might want to hire you to attract more traffic to their booth.

In my area we have a lot of low income. One year I tried to raise my prices by even $1 and kept hearing "That's too expensive" as they walked by. I didn't do too bad, but I lowered my prices back to the original and I did better the next year. I know you all are gonna tell me I charge way too little, but my prices are $2 for cheek art and bracelets; $3 for one eye designs and necklaces; $4 for masks and half faces; and $5 for large masks and full faces. I find that because I charge so little, I get a lot of people tip me $1-3 or $4 and they bring people back to me and look me up at events so it helps a bit.

I added airbrush tattoos as people kept asking me if I had something that would last longer than 1 day. I am also hoping to get more teens and adults that way too. The inks I use last 3-7 days and I can charge more. I am still doing the face painting because I have people that like the artwork and the fact that it comes off with soap and water. Plus I can be more artistic as I am just learning how to free hand airbrush. I am working on free hand airbrush graffiti lettering with backgrounds like they do with T-shirts. I can't do everything by stencil. It's not in my nature, I have to be creative.

I couldn't go too far from my home if I just did my face painting. That's also why I added the airbrushing. I have to do events. I have had 1 birthday party in all the years I have been doing it. No one wants to pay over $10-20 bucks for parties where we are. Like I said, I am in a low income, rural area. As far as booth rental, I have found that when I tell people that I do face painting they usually lower the price for a booth space for me. I am working on two event bookings where they are charging $250 for one and $385 for the other (this is a fair and the price is for 40' spaces as they don't have smaller ones, go figure.) And both are seeing if they can get it lower because they know I won't do the high volumes the merchandise and food vendors do.

Something else I am thinking of adding to increase sales is to add a costume to my face painting like puppy ears to a dog face, kitty ears to a cat face, butterfly wings to a butterfly design, pirate hat to a pirate face and so on. I found a couple of places that sells them for under $2 a package. I plan to add them to any design that is a mask, half face or full face / large mask for $5-$10 more at fairs and festivals that have a theme. That way people feel they are coming away with something that lasts longer too.

Something else you can do is to charge a little more and give discounts to large families. Do $3 cheek art and if they have say 4 kids, give them each a $1 discount. It makes them feel like they are getting a deal and you can still get the $3 for the single kids, or do a 2 for one thing. One cheek art and get a free bracelet to match or get a mask and do a matching bracelet, etc. That might be something I have to do with prices going up everywhere.

Blessings, Dawn

I get a really large amount of parties from what I consider the lowest income areas of this city (and with an unemployment rate of 15% right now, that's saying something)... they just really save up and appreciate it more. Perhaps they just want to get more for their money than just face painting.