What is the most profitable stall at a school fair?

The bottle tombola, almost every time. The stock is donated through a non-uniform day, so the margin is close to 100 per cent, and two volunteers can serve a sale every 20 seconds. A well-stocked tombola at 50p a ticket commonly takes £200 to £400 in a two-hour fair, more than stalls that cost far more effort.

How much money does a school fair usually raise?

A typical primary school fair clears £1,000 to £3,000 profit, with big-school Christmas fairs sometimes doubling that. The spread comes down to attendance, weather and how much stock was donated rather than bought. Fairs that sell entry wristbands for attractions and run a strong tombola and food operation sit at the top of the range.

Do you need a licence to sell food at a school fair?

Usually not for a one-off fundraiser. Occasional charity events selling tea, cakes and similar generally do not need food business registration, though handlers should follow basic hygiene guidance and flag allergens where they can. A barbecue raises the bar on safe handling. Selling alcohol always needs a Temporary Event Notice from the council, applied for at least ten working days ahead.

How do you price stalls and games at a school fair?

Price in round coins to keep queues moving: 50p or £1 for children's games, £1.50 to £2.50 for food and candy floss, £3 to £5 for an unlimited bouncy castle wristband. Cheap, fast turns beat expensive ones because volume wins over two hours. Keep a prize every time for under-8s and save real prizes for rare jackpots.

School Fair Stalls That Actually Make Money

The school fair stalls that actually make money share two things: a low cost per sale and a queue that moves fast. The reliable earners are the bottle tombola, the cake stall, hot food and drinks, per-go attractions like a bouncy castle, and simple games with a prize every time for little ones. Below is the honest maths on each, plus the stalls that quietly lose money and the pricing that keeps parents spending.

The maths every stall lives or dies by

A stall's takings are its margin per sale multiplied by how many sales it can push through per hour, and school fairs are short, usually two to three hours. That is the whole game. A tombola with donated prizes has close to 100 per cent margin and can serve someone every 20 seconds with two volunteers, which is why it beats almost everything. A craft stall selling £4 items that cost £2.50 to make, at one sale every five minutes, takes under £20 an hour before anyone's time is counted. Before approving any stall, ask two questions: what does each sale cost us, and how many sales an hour can it realistically do? Donated stock, fast service and a price point under £2 for children's activities is the pattern behind every stall that hands the PTA a fat envelope at the end of the afternoon.

The bankers: tombola, cakes and second-hand treasure

Three stalls earn their table every single year. The bottle tombola works because the stock is free: hold a non-uniform day the week before where the entry fee is a bottle, anything from bubble bath to prosecco, and you will have 200 prizes that cost the school nothing. Price tickets around 50p with a win on every ticket ending in 0 or 5. The cake stall runs on the same donated-stock logic and sells out at almost any price, so do not underprice it, £1.50 to £2 a slice is normal now and nobody blinks. Then the second-hand stalls: outgrown uniform, books and toys, all donated, all pure margin, and genuinely useful to families. Between them these three typically account for a third of a fair's profit, and none of them needs anything hired, bought or risked. Give them your best-positioned tables and your most organised volunteers.

Food and drink, where the serious margin hides

Fairground food has spectacular margins because the ingredient cost is pennies. A serving of candy floss uses a few pence of sugar and sells for £1.50 to £2.50, and popcorn is the same story. Machine hire typically runs £50 to £100 a day per machine on the open market, so a machine serving 50 portions has usually paid for itself by half time. FunFast's candy floss and popcorn package includes supplies for 50 servings per machine and a two-minute lesson at drop off, which matters, because the real constraint is serving speed, so put a confident adult on the floss. Hot drinks are the sleeper hit at autumn and Christmas fairs: a borrowed urn, £15 of supplies, £1.50 a cup, and a cold playground does your marketing for you. A barbecue takes the most money overall but carries real costs and food safety duties, so give it to someone who has run one before.

Per-go attractions: wristbands beat tickets

A bouncy castle at a school fair is a maths problem with a happy answer. Market hire is typically £50 to £100 for the day, and there are two ways to charge: £1 per timed go, or an unlimited-bouncing wristband at £3 to £5 sold at the gate. Wristbands win. They take the money up front, remove the queue-and-pay friction, and parents prefer one known cost to an afternoon of pound coins. Sixty wristbands at £4 clears the hire cost several times over. The same logic applies to any per-go attraction: a soft play corner for the under-5s, a penalty shoot-out, giant garden games. Whatever you hire, confirm the supplier includes delivery, set up and safety anchoring in the price, local firms like FunFast do, and ask to see the inflatable's PIPA tag. An adult must supervise the castle at all times, so build that into the volunteer rota rather than hoping.

Games stalls that earn their table

The best fair games are cheap to stage, quick per turn and impossible to feel cheated by. For under-8s, prize-every-time formats like hook a duck and the lucky dip keep toddlers happy for 50p to £1 a go, with prizes bought in bulk for 20p to 30p each. For older kids and adults, skill games with a real but rare jackpot work best: beat the goalie, splat the rat, a coconut shy if you have the space. The single biggest earner at most school fairs is anything involving a teacher, wet sponges and a set of stocks. Children will queue twice round the field and pay again for a shot at the head. Keep every game under 30 seconds a turn, price in round coins to speed the queue, and put the games in one zone so children orbit it while parents spend elsewhere. Lucky jars, donated like the bottles, sell themselves at £1.

Pricing, floats and going cashless

Set every price to avoid fiddly change: 50p, £1, £2, and price food in 50p steps. Each stall needs its own float, £30 in coins and small notes is about right, prepared in labelled tubs the night before, and the treasurer should sweep excess cash from stalls hourly rather than letting envelopes bulge. The bigger shift is cashless. Fewer parents carry cash every year, so one or two card readers at the gate selling wristbands and tokens will genuinely raise takings, and paper tokens spent at any stall keep the card queue in one place. Finally, sell the fair itself: a 50p programme with a raffle number printed on it converts the entry queue into income and gives you a prize draw that keeps families on site until the end. Announce the total afterwards. Parents give more next year when they saw what this year bought.