Bulimba State School Fete Profile

Bulimba State School Fete

Name: Rae
School: Bulimba State School
Event Date: 13 September 2014 – run every second year
Hours your fete is open: 10am – 6pm
How many students attend your school? 800
Approximately how many people attended your fete? Based on previous years we think about 7,000

PLANNING

• Did you have a theme? Yes, it was international
• How did you set a date? That’s what it has always been. Not a good date though as the Ekka is on and the two weeks after that is Bulimba Festival then the fete was two weeks after that. The date will be looked at in future years to see if it can change.
• How many organising committee roles were there and what were they? 1 x Fete Convenor also did the site convening. 2 x helpers – marketing and communications. Treasurer is the P&C Treasurer
• Have you ever been involved in organising an event like this before? No. I would do it again but do a few things differently. Nothing major, just changing a few little things regarding organisation and allocate more resources for the stalls that were busy.
• What unique attraction/activity did you have that set you apart from other fetes in your area? Chris Sheehy (The Voice contestant) – Paid lunchtime entertainment. He played for about an hour on stage.

SPONSORSHIP

• How much money did you raise from sponsorship?$20,000 – not just cold hard cash, some of it was products that were used on the day.
• How did you go about it? Really, severely lacked volunteers. Emails to previous sponsors to see if they wanted the opportunity to sponsor again. Then the person door knocked after that to those companies that were emailed and every other business in the area.
• How this this compare to previous years? On par with previous years.
• Do you have a sponsors’ tent? No. Our platinum and gold sponsors are allowed to have their own tent. They also have stall sponsors whereby businesses can put their branding all over it.Do you have any advice for other seeking sponsorship?No, it is not easy. It is getting the sponsors to come to you. We have an ongoing school events website so that the sponsors logos can be seen all the time. It is used for games nights, fetes and other events. We also did shout outs on FB. We gave sponsors more opportunities then other schools by using these methods.

RIDES

• How many rides did you have? 9 – very landlocked.
• Did you buy your rides outright or have a split percentage? Buy outright.
• What was the price of your rides? Not sure.
• What was the price of your arm bands? $30.

STALLS

• Did you allow outside stall holders? Yes, food and market stalls. They were in a space right up the top of the fete but not in a high traffic area.
• If yes, how many did you have? 8
• How much was your stall fee? $80
• List of side show alley stalls and prices Clowns – run by the ride company
• Most profitable stalls: BBQ, lob a choc, bar, adult beverage toss – like quoits for adults over wine bottles, handmade craft
• Stalls you wouldn’t run again: Photo booth – made a loss as they hired it. Not the right thing for a fete too many other things for kids to do.

 

VOLUNTEERS

• What is the best way that you have found to get people to volunteer their time? There is no answer. Guilt is the only thing that worked. I emailed a letter through class reps stating because not many people had volunteered I won’t be able to spend time with my family on fete day as you will all be doing.
• Did you use an online roster? No, but I would consider it.
• Do you have a thank you dinner/party for your convenors? Yes.
• How did you thank your volunteers? Thank you BBQ for convenors and volunteers.
• Advice for others trying to recruit volunteers? There is no easy way. Be patient and they will come on board. Create excitement, keep giving them information and they will interact more. Communication is the key.

MARKETING

• Describe any success you had with your publicity. We didn’t really have anything outside of the ordinary. Publicity wasn’t a huge success, we could have done it better. Next time we will get newspapers on board along with the local radio station. We did get a story before the fete but it was tiny and not easily seen. Local councillors plugged it through their calendars, websites, they put it on Brisbane kids etc… We had big banners on Oxford St and Riding Road so didn’t need do to a letterbox drop as everyone drove past these signs.
• How did you promote your fundraiser? Social Media including Facebook. Letter Box drop. Flyers / Posters. Local Newspaper. Your own organisation’s newsletter/ email. Press release to radio/national newspapers. Providers.
• Did you co-ordinate bulk supplies centrally? Eg. napkins, plates, cutlery, etc… Yes, the fete convenor did that and bought it from wherever they could get it cheapest. Excess stuff normally gets stored and they had information on what was used in previous years so there wasn’t anything left over.

 

PROFIT/ WRAP UP

•  What was your fundraising goal? $70,000
• How much money did you raise? $66,000
• What would you do differently next time? Change the date to move it away from the other two major festivals in Brisbane. The chool close to us has a fete in the same year and we need to alternate years to them so that we are not hitting up the same sponsors a few weeks apart. Next time it is our school’s 150th year so need to work out how this fits together with the fete.
• Is there anything you wish you had known before you started? Nothing that I can really think of. A lot of information was passed down from previous convenors which was great.
• What is the best advice that you can give a fete convenor? Stay calm, it all comes together in the end. Make decisions, don’t run them by the committee. If you think it is the best decision just go with it.
• What other fundraisers to you have during the year?Swim-a-thon, Trivia Night, Entertainment books, Mothers and Fathers Day Stalls, the odd sausage sizzle and cake stall, Crazy Camel Fundraising.

Originally published 19 February, 2015

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