Festival rates...is this normal?

Recently, my facepainting partner asked about facepainting at a large, 3 day outdoor event this summer. We have been asked to pay $100 per day flat rate and we can charge what we want. Is this normal? This feels exorbitant to me. I thought we would be a bonus for the nearby businesses. The most I have been charged was $20 for an all day event and they supplied the table & chairs. How much do fairs & festivals normally charge FacePainters when we charge the public for our work?

It does seem fair, but you could go back to the organizer and see if this can be negotiated since you enhance their entertainment venue, which in turn makes excellent photo opps for next years marketing.

I wouldn't bring in any other painters though, because then if it is slow you have to split the proceeds even farther.

That seems about right. The Rates here (and I'm not in a huge town) average out to between $50 (and that's for a really small event) and $150 per day.
What IS a little strange is that the event is priced per day at all. Most of the festivals I've been a part of want vendors to be there for the entire event- you can't pick and choose your days. (because if you could, why would you waste your time on Friday when everyone is still at work?)

$150 per day ($450 altogether?) seems pretty high to me. Is it a HUGE festival with a hundred thousand attendees expected? Is there live entertainment each night? What draws the crowds in?

Try to negotiate a lower fee by explaining to them that you can't earn as much as someone who is selling a ready-made tangible product. You have to actually paint each face as it is "ordered", which severely limits your earning potential. Let them know that the face painting is a nice bonus for the festival and always draws a crowd. If they won't lower the fee, see if they will let you pay 15-20% of your take instead. (Unless you have a lot of painters in the booth, making it more affordable to actually just pay the fee.) It would be quite a risk for you to commit to $450 for a festival you've never done before, when you aren't sure of the outcome, the weather, or how busy you might be.

It's best to research your festivals. Find out from them how many people will be attending? What's the demographics(kids & families or 20-30 yr old college students or 40-50 yr old working professionals). I'd also try to get a discounted rate telling them while most vendors are selling a product, you are selling a service. This means you are limited in income by how many people you can paint. Play up the face that you are a great draw to their festival. Also, make sure there are no other face painters. If it's a super large festival there might be enough room for several of you, but if it's small it can kill you.

All festivals I do here start at about $100 for the day and go up.
I just had a look at going to do a Kids Music festival... one day was $550.00 and they didnt even provide the stall for that amount!

I just finished Day 1 of a 2 day festival. Doing Day 2 today. Each day 11- 6 and the booth fee for crafters was 250.00. For other vendors selling items and food was 400.00 or 450.00 for 2 days.

I am the only face painter/glitter tat artist and I was able to make back all my expenses plus a nice profit in the 1st day. I actually ended up painting until about 7:30 because i still had a line.

So today is all profit so prayerfully it's another great day.

I just did a Large Craft Fair event and there is usually 80 vendors, this time maybe 30 because of the storm. Second day was cancelled, normally it is $205. but the promoter wanted me there. So she would of charged me $105. for the weekend, one day was $50. plus she asked me and my dd to come to the next fair & so on.
So I took the gamble and I did make my money back and maybe $50. more. One face painter, it would of been to slow for two. Do I gamble and hope the weather is good enough for a large crowd next time?
Everyone loved my work, thankfully..

I have a good friend that sells jewelry and handbags. If the fair allows it we share a booth, if not we get side by side. This way we can watch each others stuff (and kids if they come). So far we have only done the one event, but we have 3 more on the books for the next 6 weeks. Works well. Split the cost, but not the profits.

I have 2 festivals coming up in the next month. One is $50.00 for 1 day and the other is $150.00 for 3 days