Long Lines
October 15th, 2012I try to avoid putting myself into situations where I know that I will be facing long lines of people waiting for balloons or face painting. Whenever possible, I will encourage the host to hire one or more of my friends to help keep the lines moving. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. I find there are a few ways to handle long lines.
Although a lot of hosts want the balloons and/or face painting to be free for the guests, one way to decrease the number of people waiting in the lines is to charge a fee. If they are selling tickets for kids to play games, go on rides, or play in the moon bounces, suggest also having them use tickets for the balloons. That way, the kids will have to decide between getting a balloon or playing a game.
I have heard that some event organizers want only the most basic balloon creations. The less they look like a dog or other item the better. They get credit for offering balloons but since the balloons are very basic, some people will decide that it isn’t worth the wait in a long line to get a basic balloon.
The final method is to make fantastic balloons… OK, this won’t make the line shorter, it may actually make the lines longer. But, people will be willing to wait any amount of time to get great balloons that they have never seen before.
For face painting, I have had some event organizers suggest doing only cheek designs. I know some face painters who are really skilled at the cheek designs, but I find them harder since they require more detail to make them easily recognizable. I feel that I can paint a child’s full face like a dog faster than I can draw a tiny dog on their cheek. For me, a faster design just means fewer embelishments.