What last minute things should we remember for fete day?

 Reader question:

We are 2 weeks out from our Fete, I’m feeling really good and on top of everything. But any event planner knows that stuff always pops up last minute. What are last minute things that popped up that you didn’t think of?

Here are some suggestions from our Facebook community of things to remember on fete day:

• Someone to direct stall holder drop off vehicles and another to direct where their stalls are setting up. We had one person last year in charge of stalls but they can’t be in 2 places at once.
• Know where sticky tape, scissors, textas, or various rope are.
• Buckets for each stall to put the $$ in that is collected during the day. No mixing up what was taken from which stall.
  If profit sharing rides make sure you note the numbers on the bands and ride tickets before starting to sell. Use bumbags for your ‘cash drawer’.
• Have an information and lost child tent!! I really didn’t think about a procedure for lost kids. We probably had almost 5000 people and finding parents was a bit of a nightmare. We did make use of the MC and his microphone though – he called up ‘lost’ parents by name instead of telling the crowds that we had a lost child – much safer.
• A wet weather plan!
• Label your hired items (Bain Marie/fryers etc) as they come in with their stall so that when set up time comes around you don’t have confusion.
• Have an electrician on hand on the day (hopefully a parent volunteer) as things often go wrong. If a circuit overloads, it can cause a lot of chaos.
• Parking- I found having a parking space reserved for special guests and first aiders helped with getting them in on time. Fluro vests for yourself and other committee members to be easily seen.
• Have a person who will be your helper for the day. So much happens that you can’t be everywhere at once. Someone you trust and is happy to do lots of odd jobs on the day.

This is an important one:

• Have fun, stop, take a breath and take it all in. It’s a magical day!

• Make sure you’re prepared for people to only have all large notes ($20 and $50) at the start of the day.
• This is gross but something we didn’t think about last time – a vomit clean up kit – a bucket of sand or something like that to cover it in an oval plus disinfectant etc
• A bin empty roster/person and a toilet check roster/person
• Get a couple of parents with decent cameras and skills to volunteer to take photos for you. I found we always intended to take pictures but were too busy. Good photos are fantastic to put on your FB page or school newsletter after the event and they’re useful for promotional material the following year.
• Emergency egress point – where vehicles can get in and out.

This reader question was brought to you from ‘Fete Convenors: A Fundraising Whisperer Community‘. To read more conversations like this make sure you like our Facebook page and join our community!

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