First, you have to decide if you want a Carnival Ride company to supply rides and games for you.
Normally the answer to this question is yes. There would be exceptions, of course. For instance if you are holding an event that appeals to Senior Citizens, it is unlikely that Carnival Rides will appeal to them. Another example would be if you were appealing to disabled or challenged people. Carnival Rides are not accessible to many physically challenged people.
Once you decide to use a Carnival Ride company it gets a little more complicated. Finding the right company is the hardest part, most of the time. On the Web the best source for Carnival Ride companies is our Carnival Directory. The Carnival Ride Directory there has over 550 companies listed. Another way to locate a Ride company is to visit other promotions within a 50 mile radius of your event and propose an alliance with their ride company. In New York State only please e mail the author and we will endeavor to find a company for you.
Once you locate the right ride company it is time to think about a contract. A contract is necessary to precisely detail who has what responsibility, the funding and insurance requirements.
Included in the agreement with the Carnival Ride company should be the following:
Insurance - Liability up to 2 million for most promotions but could be much higher depending on the event and its location.
Percentage to be paid to you by the Carnival Ride company - Most Ride companies will provide numbered tickets which are sold in various multiples and are used in multiples to board rides. These tickets provide your only means of bookkeeping. The Committee (you) are sometimes guaranteed a small amount of money against a percentage of ticket sales. That percentage will depend on the newness and popularity of your event. A normal rate for most events under 20,000 attendance is about 20%. It most be pointed out that as a promoter you must be cautious to avoid over excessive greed. Don't insist on huge sums of money from the Carnival Ride Company. You won't get it and you will end up with less than satisfactory rides which may kill your promotion. It isn't worth the extra 5%.
Games - Normally the show you pick will carry a Popper and it will be written in the contract that the show has the exclusive rights to popcorn, candy apple, cotton candy sales. This is normal. The show will also carry games which travel with the show on a normal basis. The show may own some of these games and many will be independent operators. You may normally ask for a fee for each of these games. Normally $25 to $50 per game (the show may charge $150 to $350 for each of these games as they will be providing the electricity, insurance etc. to the independent operator...this is called "the privilege". You may if you wish review the number and type of games and set limitations. We recommend that you let the show owner police his own area and book the games. He is the expert here and you are already paying him for this function, so why not let him do his job!
Goodwill Items - Many shows might be anxious to pick up your date. At that point you have the ability to ask for some "perks". You might ask that the show help you with advertising, such as Coupons, Posters etc.
You might also negotiate in the contract a donation towards your entertainment such as Fireworks.
Don't push this. It isn't worth a few dollars to lose one of the best Carnival Ride Company in your area.
Many shows will also provide fencing, benches and the newest trend is to landscape the rides. You may not experience this unless you book a pretty good sized show. Small shows cannot afford to carry a lot of "excess baggage".
Fireworks/Laser Light Shows
Fireworks are one of the easiest and most popular forms of entertainment for Medium sized events. Normally the cost is about $1000 for a 15-20 minute show. Advertising a Fireworks show to culminate your event is a proven winner. For more information about a Fireworks show please click here. There are Fireworks Display companies handling Fireworks and Laser Light shows located in just about every State.
Surf the web and you will find the one closest to you or check your yellow pages.
Laser Light shows synched with Fireworks is an extremely effective show.
Live DJ/Bands
A less effective entertainment but also less costly is to hire a Mobile DJ who will come in with their own sound and light show. The younger kids really enjoy getting up on a stage and dancing. If you want to cater to the crowd then it is a given to book a band. Find out what bands are really popular in your local area and book one. Costs vary from area to area but in most cases both a DJ or a band can be hired for less than $500.
Magician/Ground Acts
Many ground acts are available through out the United States. There is a lot of controversy regarding the effectiveness regarding ground acts as opposed to staged presentations, with ground acts winning most event planners loyalty. It is our opinion that although ground acts have their place in the total picture, they do not replace the glitzy stage entertainers. Examples of ground acts would be roving puppeteers, cartoon characters etc. A Magician is also a very good choice. Lots of interaction here with the kids and normally not too costly. Most ground acts and Magicians can be hired for about $250 per performance.
Backend Shows
Normally a province of the Carnival Ride owner, you may be approached by backend shows such as the World's Smallest, Biggest, Smartest etc. .... Horse, Pig, Goat, Woman, Man etc. These are all good events to add to your independent midway and you will be paid by them to add them.
Stage Shows
People love to be entertained and they love music. It is the Universal language. A very good choice is a musical act and preferably one that the majority of your patrons recognize. Tribute acts abound though out the USA, such as The Supremes, The Del Vikings, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Marvelettes, The Platters and so on. These acts can normally be obtained for Fees ranging from $1200 to $4000 per show. Check with talent agents and you might be surprised what is available for your event.
Contests
Cheap and Easy these are one of your best entertainments. With members of your community participating, how can you miss. You will get your entrants to come to the event, perform and bring all their friends and relatives. If you have valuable prizes you might even get an entry fee from the contestants. There are so many contests to be done that I will just mention a few here. Village People Contest, Prettiest or Cutest Baby, Miss (your name here) Contest, Lip-Sync Contest, Talent Contest and so on. I am sure that you will come up with a new idea also.
Judging-Animals/4 H/Grange
This is a very wide and complicated area that normally only affects County Fairs or larger. Best to contact other Fairs in nearby counties and ask how they handle their judging or subscribe to the Showmen's mailing list and address your questions there.
The Carnival Ride Company
As we pointed out in the previous Entertainment section, the Carnival Ride company is your best investment in establishing an event for your organization. Lets start out with what the ride company wants from you. In deciding if they should take your promotion, they will want to know previous figures....attendance, ride grosses. If you have not established your event yet they will be flying blind and you may have to furnish them with a proposal detailing expected attendance, location and planned promotions. Every event promoter would like to have Spectacular rides at their event but you must realistic about the size of your promotion. State Fairs can command huge midways with 50 or 60 rides but they have attendance figures in excess of 80,000 people a day. If your planned even can only expect about 5,000 people then it is very obvious that the Carnival Ride Owner cannot afford to bring in loads of huge rides and if he wanted to you very probably would not have space.
You should be aware of the fact that you as an event planner are not in much of a bargaining position till your event has a couple of successful years behind it. Your expectations should not be too great until you have a proven promotion.
It is realistic to expect that the ride company you contract with will bring in about 10 rides for a Festival or small Fair. Most likely you will be able to have 3-4 majors and 6 kiddy rides which will include an inflatable bounce house.
You should not be upset if the Carnival you are negotiating with chooses to pick another spot for the same date as yours. It is normal for Carnivals to split up their business into two or three units which operate at the same time. Remember the Carnival has to make all its money in 26 weeks but must survive all year.
Just to put it into perspective...Ride companies have huge costs to cover. Besides the Liability Insurance that they must pay for to obtain your booking, they have costs such as; Payroll (an average of 1 1/2 people per ride), disability and compensation payments, cost of fuel and repairs for their rides, trucks and generator and costs of fuel for the generator while it operates at your event (about $15 per hour). They have their offices to maintain like any other business and have the additional costs of having to operate one permanent and one on the lot. You will find that many times Carnival Ride Companies will want to pass on or share some of these costs to/with you. If you cannot guarantee or are unwilling to guarantee their income they may ask you to share the cost of generator operating fuels, tickets etc. The Ride company will expect you to sign a contract. No matter what you agree on. The first step being a proposal letter from the ride company to you. Below is an example of a letter that they might draw up.
Re: Proposal for (your promotion or event)
To Whom It May Concern:
(Proposed) Show would be interested in supplying Rides and Games for your Festival.
Our Company can supply up to Ten (10) Rides depending on space and the Festival would receive 20% of the Ride Gross Receipts!
We can also supply up to Ten (10) Games and the Festival would receive $25 per each game.
We would also supply Three (3) Food Concessions; Ice Cream, Fried Dough and Cotton Candy, for which we would give the Festival committee $25 each.
(Proposed) Show will also do the following:
Supply 150 Advertising Posters at NO COST to Festival committee.
Make a Donation of $500.00 for towards the cost of a Fireworks/Laser Light show.
Provide (upon acceptance of proposal) all necessary Insurance Certification for General Liability in the amount of $1,000,000/$2,000,000 and Public Liability of $1,000,000/$2,000,000 aggregate plus Workers Compensation.
Looking forward to a successful and profitable year,
Sincerely yours,
(signed) The Carnival Owner
After you have received the proposal from the owner and have gotten approval for the terms from your governing body it is suggested that you draw up a contract reflecting the contents of the letter and return is promptly to the owner. Remember he is still trying to fill that week that you are planning your promotion and may have submitted several proposals.
You should not take more than three days after receiving the proposal to give the Carnival Ride company your decision. Sooner if possible.
Many Carnival owners are willing to shake your hand and complete their agreement and most are very scrupulous about doing so. However, in all the parties interest, a contract is best.
The owner may suggest a multiple year contract and if he does it is our experience that unless you are in a serious bargaining position, you take the offer.
Naturally in the contract you can specify any thing that you feel strongly about, that you expect the ride company to do.
For instance you may want to add clauses regarding clean up and so on. Keep in mind though, the more you ask for and the less you want to give will make your bid for their services less desirable.
In the contract the opening hours, closing hours, dress codes, condition of equipment and general conduct should be detailed. It would not be unusual for the ride company to insist on clauses exempting them from pollution cleanup, or down time responsibility for the rides. After all they are machines and they will break down and it is unrealistic to expect them to be repaired at night when the ride company cannot get necessary parts.
A lot of bad blood can be avoided between the event planner and the ride companies representatives by the spelling out in advance of all the possible pitfalls that both can encounter.
As said earlier the Ride company will expect to bring in a Popper plus other concessionaires that travel with the show. They will police their own people and make sure they are dressed properly and that the concessions come up to the standards that you would normally expect...however, the concessionaires are independent and are small companies themselves and will have their own rules and standards. If you do not wish a particular kind of concession because you feel it competes with one that you are running or it is not the type of game or sales that you wish; you can detail that in your contract. We strongly urge you to keep your games to a minimum and let the experts in the carnival ride company plan that strategy for you.
