Rentals for School Carnivals - Reventals Event Rentals
  • Top 5 Rentals for School Carnivals in 2023

    Rentals for School Carnivals

    If you have school aged children, it’s the time of year where you are either practicing your “saying no” skills or your calendar is getting full with volunteer commitments.  Personally, my calendar is full and now I’m practicing the fine art of saying no gracefully.  (Check out this article from Real Simple on 10 Guilt-Free Strategies).

    If you find yourself on the school carnival committee, I’m here to help.  Below are the top 5 rentals for school carnivals. These are tried and true – you just can’t go wrong with these classics:

    1. Slide

    inflatable slide

    I recommend getting a dual slide because kids like to race. Also, you can move more kids through in a given time.

    2. Dunk Tank

    Dunk Tank Rental for School Carnival

    Who wouldn’t love to dunk their teacher or the principal? Just make sure nobody is assigned to the station for more than about 20 minutes at a time. It gets old going into and getting out of the water.

     

    3. Obstacle Course

    Just like with the slide, I recommend getting a dual lane so the kids can race and you can move more kids through in a given time.

    4. Games

    Milk Bottle Toss Game Rental for School Carnival

    The most popular rentals are Ring Toss and the Milk Bottle Toss. Note: I think this is a great place to save money and put parents to work. Let them get creative with cake walks, bobbing for apples, face paint, etc.

    5. Concessions

    Popcorn Machine Cart Rental for School Carnival

    Popcorn machines, Cotton Candy Machine and Funnel Cake Fryers are by far the most popular.  Another fun thing to do is get a food truck to come to the school. I like doing this because it is one less thing the organizers have to worry about.  Check out our recent blog on the Top 10 Austin Food Trucks.

    Making Your Event Unique

    To make your carnival unique from year-to-year, bring in at least one new thing each year. Here are a few of popular ones:

    The Big Baller

    It’s like something you’d see on American Ninja Warriors

    Meltdown

    This will test agility. It’d be really fun to watch the teachers and parents do it.

    Human Whack a Mole

    Things to consider:

    1. If you need to move a lot of people through in a short period of time, don’t choose things where kids need to be suited up. Examples include rock walls, euro bungee bounces and the whack a mole. It would take a long time to give everyone a turn on these.
    2. If you have a wide age range of kids, consider having a few things just for the littles. I’d get a bounce house slide combo and put an age limit on it.
    3. Power – you probably need to rent generators to run the inflatables. Generally one generator can power 2 inflatables (note: this is not the case if the inflatable is large and has 2 blowers. Those need their own generator). If you plan to plug the inflatables into an electrical outlet, keep in mind that it is the only thing that can be on that circuit (I don’t mean plugged into the outlet – I mean the entire circuit). You can’t plug multiple inflatables into a circuit, and I wouldn’t recommend plugging anything else into the circuit. It will blow the fuse and you don’t want to deal with that during the carnival.
    4. If you are using any games with water, don’t put them on the football field because they create a muddy mess and the coaches will hate you afterwards 😉

    Email us at info@reventals.com if you have any questions. We are always happy to help. Not only do we help others plan school carnivals, but also everyone on our staff has been on a committee for their kids school.

    Candace Leak

    Candace is a 3x Start-up Founder and Certified Event Rental Professional (CERP). She geeks out on brainstorming bold ideas and then actually brings some of them to life. She is currently the CEO of Reventals, where her mission is to reduce overconsumption by making it as easy to rent as it is to buy.

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