It's easy to sell tickets to fun fall events like a pumpkin patch, corn maze, or hay rides. Doing so can help raise money for your favorite charity. Or you can make a tidy profit for yourself and your family. Here are some tips to get the ball rolling even if you have never managed a ticketed event before!
You may already have taken your family to a big fall harvest festival that featured a corn maze or hay ride. Now you are you thinking about having such an event of your own. Many people assume selling tickets is only something a big event can do, but that is not true! Small family-owned events have done very well for themselves selling tickets for profit or as a way to raise money for charity. It's important to know that you can start off rather modestly selling tickets in person and on a simple website, then see how it goes.
In order to sell tickets to fun fall events, there are some unique considerations for each kind...
Pumpkin Patch Events
Pumpkin patches, as places of commerce and events, are incredibly popular with families. The yearly ritual of letting kids pick out their pumpkin themselves is on par with Easter egg hunts and leaving cookies and milk out for Santa Claus.
Pick-your-own pumpkin patches can be facilitated on the very property the big orange gourds are grown, or at a more convenient location like the parking lot at of a neighborhood store. Formal “admission” to a pumpkin patch is rare, with families wandering in and out. However taking pumpkins out of the patch is in need of some control measures (what we call “gate control” in the ticketing industry). One need not have traditional gates or turnstiles like at a sports stadium - that what be too cumbersome, not to mention expensive. The dividing line for ticketing is really a matter of managing high demand during certain days and times.
By selling tickets to your pumpkin patch you can control how many people come each day. Tickets do a great job of controlling spikes in demand for any event. A Saturday afternoon late in October may mean big crowds, maybe too big, if the pumpkin patch is just you and your spouse. However by asking that people buy or make a reservation online - in advance - you can spread the number of people out over a longer timeline. Transporting pumpkins from your wholesale source or farm to a remote location is a lot of work, but you can keep the number of trips to a minimum by selling tickets or requiring a reservation. With online reservations, you can see that on the popular Saturday - when 500 people R.S.V.P. - you'll need to replenish your pumpkin inventory so you don't run out!
Corn Maze Events
As defined by Wikipedia, a corn maze is a popular tourist attraction and a way for farms to create tourist income. “Income” is the operative word for any event and corn mazes are no exception...
Like pumpkin patches, corn mazes have found a place in the hearts of many as an annual activity every fall season. The family farm that took the time to build a corn maze may have done so just to play host to their neighbors, and without the intent of making money. If that sounds like your intent for your corn maze, you should know that by adding ticketing you can raise money for your community or favorite charity.
Unlike a pumpkin patch, corn mazes fall into a more traditional event type (a fixed locale people venture to, with scheduled operational days and times). And by design, corn mazes have an entrance and an exit, just like many other traditional events (amusement park, nightclub, etc.) With set operational days and times, plus a entrances & exits, a corn maze meets all the qualifications for being a ticketed event - and then some.
If fundraising is the goal of a corn maze, then ticketing has a meaningful role to play as it helps organize and keep secure the donations made. The online ticketing process for your corn maze can politely ask for donations (“A free event, but feel free to donate to our charity!”). By having donations made online, it saves you from the worry and hassle of handling cash on site. If your charity or cause is local, it is likely that their preferred way of accepting funds is electronic, which is all the more reason to make use of a basic online ticketing service.
Hay Ride Events
Of the fun fall events in this post, hayrides represent the most formal event types and routinely use ticketing software. As run by a non-profit or as part of a larger fall event, hayrides have special requirements for safety and liability. Selling tickets enables the liability disclaimer many insurance companies require, so having the physical ticket itself with the liability disclaimer printed on the back, keeps you in compliance. Tickets also let you make the hayride be just one aspect of a larger event.
For example, if your fall festival has a pumpkin patch, a hayride, a corn maze and maybe even a haunted house, you can offer up each activity via à la carte tickets. Giving families a choice of activities keeps their expenses down. Conversely to sell tickets to a fun fall event as an all inclusive experience - one ticket for everything - can be a very lucrative endeavor for a family farm.
ThunderTix Ticketing Software Is Easy To Use
This post has just scratched the surface of how ticketing software can make your fun fall event easier to manage, safer and more profitable (if that's your goal).
We have many more helpful resources to read, like our Selling Tickets Online feature Page. If you have questions, or are in a hurry to sell tickets to your event, you are welcome to contact us and we’ll take care of you right away. If you would like to learn more about ThunderTix software, check out our features, plans and pricing.