Profit at festivals

Hey everyone,

I hope this isn't too personal; however, I am wondering about how much do you guys make at large festivals. The festival I am doing is projecting 40,000 attendees over a two day period and I have estimated that atleast 1,000 kids will get their faces painted and if my estimations are correct, that's pretty good to me with a great profit. However, since this is my first large festival I don't know if I have under/over estimated. Please give me some feedback on your experiences.

Thanks

Only if you can paint that many - you can only paint as fast as you can paint, and you can only charge what people will pay - so multiplying those two out will give you the maximum gross sales you can attempt. If you have more people helping that's great - but that also changes the dynamic and may provide other issues (such as if the line isn't busy enough and you are sitting there looking at each other).

I can roughly paint 10 decent faces in an hour (which includes swap over time etc.) More if I am doing really quick faces (I have once done 150 in 1 and a half hours.... crazy!)
When painting quick faces I charge less so in the long run end up making about the same amount of money.
Lets say you are working 8 hours a day (??) for 2 days. Thats approximately 160 faces that you can paint alone.

It all really depends what you charge and how many people are willing to pay that. I guess if you can find the perfect balance, charging a fair amount so you aren't putting off too many people and still have a steady line, but not charging too little and having a line for Africa therefore still painting the same amount of people and not making as much money. What that price is, I am still not sure. Here in NZ it is fairly standard to charge $5 a face although that seems a lot lower than most other people.

I have only ever done one full weekend (8 hours a day for 2 days) and we were totally rained out (not good when paint is of course not water proof) over the 2 days we only made $200 profit. So far every PPF event I have been painting at has either had bad weather, had other issues or just been a short event, I am yet to have the perfect event.

I did a few fairly large events last year in upper NH. My dd and I started as soon as we set up about 9am and went till 5pm or so. We were so busy we had hardly time for a bathroom break. In fact it was about 2pm and the the food was mostly gone and then only one of us at a time ate. We made probably about $500. in a town that I thought we would make little. My booth fee was just $25. It is about 2 hours away, but my sister lives 20 minutes from there, so we got to visit as well. I thought it was good for a economy down city.
We also did a couple of Old Home Day's and made about the same. The people were great and some even ran for drinks for us. We were asked back in all the places. Not easy work, because of no breaks, but good money. I am scheduling breaks this year, every couple of hours, taking turns.
I will post it that way as well. So everyone knows to expect it.

there are a lot of factors involved.... the very idea of having a line here more than 3 deep and more than once in a while, is just out of the question. So, for a 3 day festival last year with two painters in the booth, while it rained most of the weekend and we each went home with $500 after paying for the booth fees, we were very happy. I won't book that many parties in one weekend and when you consider that a "regular" job at "regular" wages probably wouldn't make that for you in a week, I'm happy making that kind of money in one weekend.

I've heard a very small % of attendees get painted... like 1-3%. Don't remember where I heard this... probably here somewhere.

Its hard to say for just face painting as I do henna as well but a big festival I expect to make between 350-550AUD for the day. Depends on what the stall fee is too as to how much of that I take home.

There is no formula for estimating the percentage of festival goers who will indulge in face art. As it indeed varies based of the festival audience and what the market can bear. Some events are kid friendly and may even have a kids area, some events are geared at adults, some events people spend money, some events they just don't .... know the audience. And how much an event cost will tell you what the profit margin for face art might be. A booth fee of $25 is not going to have the potential as one with a booth fee of $350 or $1000. And how much you charge, and how much can you paint determine how much you can make.

Festivals always project more than last years event - so what are the real numbers. I have done events projected at 100,000 and the crowd was 1/4 that. In turn I have doen some where the crowd was 20,000 more than expected.

I can't even image doing a festival and not having a line way more than 3 people deep!

For us we easy make more than $500 in a weekend, so the festival must be worth our time or offer us something in return. We have a fully packed festival step up and still the prep time is many hours of work - we could have stayed home and made as much money sometimes.............so more factors to consider.

Bottom line here lalaland is you do not provide enough information to give you a good answer. I'd say get more information, do more homework and run more numbers.

i guess it just depends on the area...I usually have no less than 10 people in line at all times and sometimes waiting up to 2 hours for a face painting (on a nice sunny day) at 5 (butterfly cheek art that isnt advertised), 8, 10 faces amd now i will have up to a 12 and 15 tier (major blinged out crowns and faces). I know I can do up to 12 or 15 when my adrenaline kicks in. so I multiply that by say $8 = $120/hr X 5 hours =$600 - $100 booth fee= $500. This is my estimate for my festival this sunday. Everyone please pray for Sunshine and light breeze. xoxo

wow Perry only 3 deep only sometimes?
Far out I'm going to start charging more. My line is always 5- 10 kids long or more!!! They regularly wait an hour or longer to be painted. That's what I get for charging $5 for everything!
The last festival I did was 9 hours - 15,000 expected, it was a food and wine festival so there was no projected amount of families or kids as this was the first year they actually had anything for kids there..... my husband did airbrush/glitter tats and I painted ( for for three hours I painted for the sponsor for free and they paid me $150... long story)... so basically I only made money for 5 hours out of 8..... and we took home $800 minus booth fee which if I remember was $130. I was slaughtered.... no toilet or food break.... the line followed me from my tent to the sponsors tent and back, and it took me three days to recover physically.
This weekend I have a 7 hour gig on my own for Porsche.... on 200 people so maybe 50 kids, very cruisey, great promotion for my business, not set up fees and they pay me $560!
It can be worth doing festivals... can be fun.... but very very hard work.... can be a disaster (I've been rained out twice before too, had free face painters show up etc etc)..... it can majorly boost the speed of your painting..... can build you a local presence.... can get you more work.... oh did I mention it's very very hard work??
I limit myself to about 5 festivals every year, and put all my efforts into acquiring corporate clients that hire you for multiple events for long hours.

it's just the way it is around here... no matter how good the festival is, if they have to pay for it, they don't want to wait. And they don't even wait long because I work really fast. I don't think Glitterfly would disagree.

Wow. I have painted nonstop to, but I usually vlunteer or work off tips. I got $200 from a book festival that I was charging $3 for cheek/hand and $5 for full face. we made 400 but I gave half to the group I volunteered for. They insisted I take the other half since I did all 6hours with no break. I wasnt going to fight them.
I have done one or two festivals since then but onyl worked off tips so it varies greatly. My last one, A princess event, I forgot the tip jar completely, so it was 4 hrs of glittering and nothing but a bunch of smiles. the girls were soo happy! but my line can get up to 2hrs, the longest Ive had was 2.5 I personally think its ridiculous, but I wont turn anyone away if they are in line. I mean, if they want to wait Ill let them. I go as fast as I can and still make pretty designs.
I have a feeling once I get splitz Ill get much fast, I spend a lot of time doing 2 or 3 colors to blend. PLUS they will turn out better! yahoo! win win

Oh if it's terribly UNDER priced, sure... I did a school fun day a few weeks ago where they were paying me hourly and charged for tickets that I collected. The line was insane and I couldn't figure it out until I found out how much they were charging... $2 for anything! No wonder at the 2 hour event they were waiting 45 minutes to get painted! Safe to say that the school didn't make back the hourly they were paying me because I couldn't paint any faster.... there's a reason why I told them that it should be at least $5 a face.

....so I should have charged more? I mean I know I paint cute, but defintly not masterpieces of shading and artwork, but I dont think I would personally pay much more than $5-6 bucks for a full face. How could I ask them to pay more?
Its my most troubled spot, figuring out what to pay. Its why I just volunteer and take whatever for the most part.
If my next event has long lines Ill try raising the pirce a buck or two and see what happens. I didnt realise the price had that much effect on lines.
I dont try to be stupid and Im learning from advice to get better.

Maybe 5 for cheek and 8 for full face? that sounds decent. I know the parks can charge 12-15 bucks or more. *Disney and Universal, Six Flags and such

I guess the hardest part is believeing Im worth it. Thats what it comes down to, I get intimated when I see your arts, so I am buckling down and just doing the best I can be. Tah Dah!
Ok, enough from me. the sentimental newbie sap of the group.

Tara,
Search through the threads. I wasn't sure what to charge. Ended up doing $2-3 for cheek (depending on design) and $5 for mask/more intricate whole cheeks. I charge $8 for full face, but recently at many of my events I've been avoiding displaying the full face b/c I find I get through the lines faster with a spidey mask than I do with a spidey full face.