National Festival Circus

Automatically generated from the audio, so it may not be perfectly word-for-word.

Hi, welcome to the PTA podcast. My name is Yvonne, and I've been a PTA volunteer for a few years now. But I'm just one of thousands of volunteers up and down the country who all want to make a difference to their schools. PTAs are becoming even more crucial in UK schools to boost budget, and I find it fascinating to talk to other volunteers about the different approaches they take. So please join me in this podcast to share information, generate ideas, debate issues, and celebrate success. And I hope that you can take something away for your PTA today. Hi everyone and welcome to episode 45 of the PTA podcast. Firstly, how is your term six panning out? I do hope all your organization is going well if you haven't quite had your big summer event yet. But if you feel like it's all getting on top of you, then why not have a listen to episode 28 where I talk about how you can survive the organization of a big summer fate or a big summer event and what to do if you feel too overwhelmed to carry on. I have certainly experienced this multiple times when I was PTA chair. And uh the organisation can be fine for a bit and then suddenly you can I don't know, a small crisis might happen and you suddenly feel like you just can't carry on. So I I know how that feels. It's happened to me. A big summer fate is a big undertaking. And I know from experience that we can all go through a period of doubting ourselves. So I've tried to support you and give you some strategies. And if you need one, I have given you a little pep talk to help you get through to the other side where victory and fundraising await. I think it's pretty normal to feel like this at this particular time of year. And it's also very normal to feel that you might never ever want to organise a big summer event ever again. But I want to encourage you to keep going as there's potential to have a wonderful event that you have planned for everyone, which gathers your school community together to raise money for the children. So hang on in there if you're struggling at the moment. But if you seriously do feel like your team needs a break from a big summer fate, which requires a lot of volunteers and a lot of organizing, then I may have a solution for you in this episode. Today I'm having a chat with Elliot from the National Festival Circus, and he is going to explain everything you need to know about booking a circus to come to your school and have as a PTA fundraiser. Elliot Circus team has put a lot of thought into how to make a circus visit as painless as possible for PTA volunteers. And as you'll hear from our chat in a moment, there is not a massive burden on your PTA to organise anything actually on the day at all. In fact, the PTA's main role is the marketing and selling of tickets in the run-up to your performance day. And to make it even better for anyone currently stressing about the weather in the UK, the circus is a completely weatherproof event. So imagine having an event where you did not have to monitor the weather for six weeks in advance and stress about it and worry that it's all gonna go wrong. The we the circus can go ahead, whatever the weather. So I hope you enjoy this chat I had with Elliot, as I found it fascinating to find out more about how the circus works and also how you um organise it as a fundraiser. Anyway, I will hand over to Elliot now so he can tell you all about it. Hi, Elliot, and welcome to the PTA podcast. Thank you so much for coming to talk to me today, all about the circus. But before we get into that, could you just introduce yourself a bit for my listeners, please?

Yeah, absolutely. My name is Elliot. Um, I'm here on behalf of the National Festival Circus. Um, we're a small family circus. Um, the show has been running for almost um 40 years now. Um and we uh we fundraised for schools and PTAs across the country um with our circus. Um you know, it features it features all sorts of different artists, uh musical numbers, slapstick comedy, award-winning circus acts, um, cartoon characters, carnival dancers, and yeah, it's such a great format of um fundraising for for schools PTAs.

Yeah, and has it been in your family a long time?

Yeah, so I mean you'll find with circus people anyway, regardless of where they come from or anything else, but they're they're circus blood, you know. When you get into circus, uh it's so enjoyable that um you know you you do it for a lifetime, that's it. You know, it's in your blood, it's in circus blood and things. But um my dad runs the show, he's been running it for over th uh 40 years now. Um, and uh we are a family show. My fiance Molly, she's a contortionist and she fits into a bottle. And then some but yeah, so we're literally everybody in the family is um part of the show, and we don't just do circus, we do tribute shows, we do um all sorts of different things, theatre shows and things and stuff.

Yeah, yeah, great. And um, it's quite a big tradition in our country, isn't it? The tradition of a circus. And one of the things you said to me when we had a chat previously was that sometimes a circus being booked by a PTA could be a child's first experience of the circus.

Yeah, and to be honest, sometimes adults you'll be surprised how many sort of, you know, you get adults that have the first experience of circus, and it's great that it comes from a school. Um, it's great that it comes from you know the the kids fundraising for their own their own school and their own PTA.

Yeah.

Um it can be the first experience, and which is great because the format that we work, we're a lot smaller than the sort of bigger shows that tour across the country. And so for a first experience for little ones, it's great because it's all got the cartoon characters, it's got the you know the live music, you know, the lively music and the um the colourful characters and all sorts of things like that. So it's a great introduction to kids and to adults really for Circus Live. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's very much a family event, it's not just for children, you've got things in there that adults will enjoy as well.

Exactly, yeah. It's all all you know, all ages, from the age of three to 103, to be honest.

Yeah.

Um yeah, it's a family, you know, it's a special family show presented from our family to everybody else's family, really.

Oh wow, that sounds really lovely. So could you explain exactly how your circus works? If a PTA was considering having a circus, what could they expect from you?

Um so we're we're quite self-contained. Um, we work on the format of a weekday and a weekend format, so they're totally different formats, but they're a similar sort of um arrangement.

Okay.

Um so all we need from the the school or PTA is a flat grass area of 20 meters by 20 meters. Okay. And that's um the full event. That's from the vehicles to the anchor points for the tent and everything else. So that's quite literally the full event with the tent inside as well.

Wow, okay.

And we asked for two 13-amp plugs and toilets.

Okay, that's it.

All we need, even volunteers. Um, you know, we don't really need volunteers. We can always do the doors on the you know, the ticket system, as long as we know your ticket system of like wristbands or you know, if it's online tickets or anything like that, we can also sort that out for you on the door and you know, let everybody in and things like that. But uh, but yeah, it's quite self-contained. You know, there's no caravans, no heavy vehicles, no overnight stays. It's a whole human production of what we do. I mean, some shows, some circuses across the UK that do schools, they you know stay overnight and have caravans and things like that. So it's working on what structure and what format works for your school and PTA really. But we over the 40 years we've done um with the circus, we sort of bespoked it to the schools of what they they prefer and what they enjoy and sort of what works for them really. Um so yeah, so we and we provide all insurance documents, VAT certificates, risk assessments, DBS, all the things that you need for putting on a successful event, really. Yeah, um, and uh and also the the seating is provided by us again. Some of the other shows and things um don't provide seating, which works works well for a lot of schools and things, but we provide all 200 seats at each performance. Um and the the format we work on weekdays, we arrive at 11am. Okay, um to set up and that works very, very well because we're just before their lunch hour. Yes, that's right.

Good timing.

Yes, that's it. And we're just after the uh when the parents bring this the kids to school. Um, so it's a great sort of 11am works very, very well for us. So we arrive at 11am, we set everything up, um, and we have shows at 4 p.m. and 5 30 on a weekday.

Okay.

Um, and they're one-hour format shows.

Okay.

Um and then we're off site by the latest by 7:30. So as long as we've got access at 11am and access at 7.30 to get off site, we're we're happy with that. Yeah.

I think that's amazing that you can arrive and set up a big top and all the seating and do two shows and then leave on the same day. I mean, that's just I think that's just incredible. So how so how does it work with um vehicle access? Because I'm just thinking about my own school, we have quite a tricky uh we do have a field on site that would would be the right size, I think, for the circus, but just actually getting through to that field is a bit tricky. So when you say you don't have really large vehicles, what kind of vehicles are they?

Yeah, so we have um we have just one normal Luton van.

Okay.

Um it all fits into a Luton van normally. Um, and then we have about four or five cars that come on site, and that's our artists and things like that. So there's no heavy vehicles, no lorries, there's no caravans or anything like that.

Yeah.

Not grass or anything like that. But yeah, we're very sort of contained within one main vehicle, which is a Luton van. Um, but we need access of at least three metres wide by three meters high. Okay. Um in trees and things like that. But uh, but yeah, so so quite minimal access um uh throughout, really. But uh as long as we can get on-site and off-site, that's the main thing.

Yeah, and the fact you bring all the chairs, so on so on the day when when you arrive to set up, I mean, I guess someone would meet you at the school, so maybe a PTA volunteer might actually meet you, make sure you've got everything you need. But in terms of setting up and everything, there's not very much for the PTA to do at that point.

No, exactly. I mean, especially the weekends, really. I mean, as long as there's a caretaker there to open up on the on the morning of, um, yeah, we don't need anything else as long as we've got that sort of plug-in for electric um and toilet facilities, just the necessities, really. Um, that's literally all we need until the first performance. And it's always nice to have that event manager on site, you know, one PTA member just to make sure everything's running okay and everything's a happy, you're happy with everything. Um, but yeah, we can do the doors on the day and uh and everything from the show to the the get in to the setup to the dismantle to everything really. Everything is done in-house, self-contained within our wow.

Okay, so you mentioned that during the week the shows are at four o'clock and was it 5 30? Is that right? And are they are they different times at the weekends?

Yes, so the weekends are a little bit different. Um, we normally arrive about 8 a.m.

Oh wow.

So again, as well, one there to uh to let us in. Um and then show times run from 1 pm um and there's a 2.30 and a 4 p.m. show. So we do three performances on a weekend, which um which sort of elevates your uh your need for you know tickets. You can do another 200 tickets on a weekend.

Yeah.

Um then we're gonna provide this for the sort of bigger scores that can attract a lot more people um throughout the weekend, really. But uh and we should be off site by 6 pm at the latest on a weekend. Um, and that works on Saturdays, Sundays, and we normally do sort of a Wednesday and a Friday each week, depending on the availability of what we have.

Right, okay. And I'm not exactly sure where you are based in the country, but do you have a geographical limit to how far you would actually travel for a booking?

Yeah, I mean we travel across the country and we're a touring show, we travel, you know, everywhere. I mean, last week we're in Sheffield, Leicester, Ledbury, um, this week we're in Sussex and the Midlands, and then next week we go to Manchester and Lichfield. So there's plenty of different places that we keep um we're based from the Midlands.

Okay.

Um, so my dad that runs a show, he's based in the Midlands with a couple of other artists there. Um, and then me and Molly, we're based in Derby, and then we have artists based in Somerset and uh Chester and London and all sorts of different places, but we try and keep within sort of two hours within the Midlands, which is a great scope because you can get to Windows, you can get to Manchester, Liverpool, you know, you can get even to South London in that time, um, you know, Derbyshire, all sorts of Yorkshire, all sorts of different places. Um, but it's always worth just getting us, you know, sending us an email, um, and then we can always help from there on and just see if we can get a few in one area, that always helps as well.

Yeah.

Um travel expenses and accommodation for people as well. Um, you know, as you say, we don't uh we don't bring caravans or anything else like that. So we always get our artists on our crew in uh in hotels and accommodation.

So it's basically always worth asking if someone's interested, and then you can talk to them about if it's going to work or if there's someone close by, then you might be able to pop over to their location or something. So always worth always worth an ask. Yeah, that's really good.

Just drop us an email, we'd be happy to help.

Yeah. So if a PTA, uh once PTA has made a booking with you, what happens next?

So we we normally send off a uh marketing kit for the school um and for the PTA, and that includes all sorts of different logos, photos, quotes, um, poster templates, leaflet templates, all sorts of different things like that. Um, that helps the school to be able to promote the event. Um, some schools do it's it there's no sort of pattern with it, it wants to say. Um, you know, we've had schools. I mean, last year we had somebody call up about you know, two hours after they put tickets on sale, and they'd sold all 600 tickets within those two hours, which is rarely fine, but it's great, it's fantastic. When we get stuff like that, we're like, that's amazing.

How successful! What an amazing thing.

It's not always like that, obviously. As you probably know, um, with PTA advertising, it's very hard. It's very hard to get through to people to book tickets or book you know their slots or anything like that. But uh, but we always provide marketing materials um just so people can see the sort of real life of what to expect. Um, we try and we suggest to um a lot of PTAs to avoid AI marketing um just simply because you know sometimes it's a bit a little bit misled for something similar to this. Obviously, a cake sale or anything like that is very different to um what they would experience in real life. Um, but again, we provide all the materials you can use to create a poster or use our templates to be able to um to look forward to the event, you know, to expect what you expect. I mean, we do we have promotional videos as well, which work great on social media. Um, if you find that sort of live aspect of this is what it's gonna be, you know, people seem to sort of really react to that and uh put tickets from there on, yeah.

Yeah. So I guess what you're saying is that the main function of a PTA in in this fund in this sort of circus fundraiser is really the marketing and the ticket sales. And that's where their focus needs to be, isn't it? Because you provide basically everything else, and they just need to make sure that they've got people coming along and paying for their tickets and raising the money that way.

Exactly, yeah. I mean, advertisement is you know ultimately up to the PTA, um, but the school already has its own clientele, um, which advertiser's dream just to have their own clientele in that sort of you know, that building to say, you know, you've got you've got book bags, you've got newsletters, you know, you can put posters up in the the you know, the halls and things, you've got banners to put on the the car park or something similar to that, and that generates tickets, and you can also open that up to the wider community. You know, you can go to local shops and put posters up and leaflet drops and things. Uh you've got Facebook groups that are very, very supportive of you know things like that. Um, the other thing that we we find that's very, very good, it's quite it's weird, it's sort of like a southern-based um advertising thing that although you can get it in the north, but we find it's most popular in the south, and it's the state agent sponsorship boards.

Yes.

Great, they're great. As soon as even when we turn up, we're like, oh, that's the circuit, oh that's us, you know. Um, we'll see the advertising straight away, and they're great for support. If you can get one of those, you know, a couple of those in the local town, um, you know, it's great support from your local community, and people seem to like you know, to to grow towards the uh the fundraising aspect of a local school, yeah. Local fundraiser, because it's all going to the local community and to the uh to the kids, really.

Yeah, because I suppose what a PTA is actually doing is they are buying the circus from you as a as a as an event, and then if they can get advertising sponsorship, that obviously offsets the cost of purchasing the circus, and then the ticket sales should cover more than the cost obviously to raise the money. So, yeah, any sponsorship um that a PTA can can raise just really helps with that whole package, doesn't it?

Absolutely. I mean, we've had sometimes before we've had sponsorships for um the schools that have actually paid for the show to be there, so everything they make is profit margins for you know for the fundraising, which is great, it's wonderful to see that sort of thing. I mean, one of the places we went to there was um it was very clever. I think the PTA lady must have been something to do with advertising because um she had like a program and she had sponsorships in that program, which again the majority of the day um of the expenses really, which worked very, very well. And obviously we helped with them as well because they they messaged us to say um we'd like to do a programme. Have you got sort of you know some entail of what's coming up, you know, what apps have you got and things like that? And we we put together a sort of bio for everybody and things like that. So it works very, very well. But all it takes is an email just to email us and uh we're happy to help and advise further if there's anything. And sometimes ticket sales can be very last minute, as you probably know.

Yes, yes, um it can be very nail-biting sometimes, can't it? You think you haven't got enough people, but then suddenly everyone buys a ticket, right? Right there. I don't know why people do it by the last minute, but yes. So so um I mean, one of the reasons I I've I've never been to a circus fundraiser, so I've never had one at my own school, and I haven't been to any another school. It and and one of the reasons I didn't book one at my school was because my school is quite small. We've got about 80 children, and I guess I just thought it probably I probably wouldn't get the ticket sales to justify a circus coming. But I but there is there a limit on like the size of school? Do you say no if the school's too small or anything?

Not at all, to be honest. I mean, it might feel very ambitious at the start, you know. It's very, very ambitious to say, you know, you've got to sell 400 to 600, you know, seats or anything else like that. But from our past experience, I mean, we do a nursery actually that um we did about four years ago and we've got we've got the uh the job back this year, yeah. Um and they they do very, very well, and they've only got 40 children at their nursery.

Wow, okay.

But it's because they have the um the sort of support from the local community, okay. Um if you have that support from the local community and you have the support from advertising space and things like that, um, it's a guaranteed success, you know, um within um, but yeah, I mean we we do scores of 200, we do tours like you said, of 80. Um, we do scores of you know, 500 or 600 children. But uh, but yeah, it depends on the support you get from the local community. If you're prepared to sort of um push out to the local community uh you get that support back, I think you know it's it's generally a very successful fundraiser if it's done in the right way.

Yeah, and I guess that comes back again to the marketing and the advertising, doesn't it? And to really uh put lots of effort into that and then um people will come along. So in terms of um ticketing, do you have any do you provide any advice or anything for PTAs on how to best um sort of sell the tickets? Because obviously there's you know, selling actual paper tickets or there's maybe selling electronically. Is there a is there something you recommend to them or is it completely up to the PTA to make its own decision on that?

It's entirely up to them, really. I mean, a lot of um PTAs have um past experience with ticket sales and things for all sorts of different events, but we recommend, you know, you've got ticket source, you've got ticket debut, you've got PTA events uh that work very closely with PTAs, um which work very, very well. But also physical tickets from reception are great. Um they work very, very well. And I think we spoke before that um you know that you you can always set up a competition for the children to sort of almost design their own circus ticket and sort of leave that with the curriculum to be able to sort of give that support, that's more advertising for the show, um, which works very well. We've seen that done a lot, you know, that a lot of the time, even just with leaflets and posters and things, they have helped. design their own one and sort of give that aspect of of knowledge before the circus comes which is works very very well.

Yeah I think that's such a lovely idea because it really gets it really kind of gets the excitement going, doesn't it? And the children can then, you know, if they do something at school and then bring it home and talk to the parents, I think that's a really fantastic way of really encouraging people to buy tickets is always if you get the children involved then then they can be very, very persuasive to their parents that they want to go to the circus or want to do whatever it is. So yeah I think that that would be really lovely. And also yeah if the school can spend a bit of time talking about what a circus is and what they can expect I think that yeah I think that's a really great idea to get them involved in that way. So in terms of um so the PTA can choose how it sells the tickets and what about the ticket prices?

So ticket pricing we normally suggest uh ticket prices between about £10 to £12 and we find that that's quite reasonable for tickets um you know it is an hour long show it's a professional show uh with all sorts of different acts and artists and things like that but what tends to happen if you put tickets on too low um it sort of devalues a show and they think it's not they think maybe it's something you know that the PTA have put on themselves and they're all dressed up like that.

Yeah that wouldn't be very good but uh but no we we tend to advise between 10 and 12 pounds sometimes more than that obviously it's a fundraiser for the children as well so you're giving support to the school um not only for the fundraiser but for the uh curriculum of the school and the um you know the children's health and wellbeing really yeah um you know all sorts of different things that fundraisers have have used with the money um from books uh you know iPads for the children for play areas playgrounds you know all sorts of different things yeah okay um and then so just going back to the actual day of the performances again because you did mention that um you could potentially your your team could um check the tickets on the way in I can't remember what you called it now you had a special name for it but um but alternatively that is something that the PTA volunteers could do when people arrive is to check the tickets or if you've issued wristbands just to check those as well.

Yeah exactly I mean some of the schools do different colour wristbands for different shows which works very very well easier and lots quicker to go through um 200 people at once rather than scanning a ticket or anything like that. But again scanning a ticket works well as well or physical tickets like we said with the competition and things like that. It's always good to have those physical tickets um but yeah we we can provide that if necessary we always have people on the door just for you know safety reasons or anything like that and just to get people if there's any questions on the door or anything like that um that people need to know we can always guide and uh administer that but uh yeah that's quite literally the only job of the uh the day really if they want to uh get tickets on the day and just be there on hand in case you know there's anything any questions needed or anything like that.

Yeah.

And something we talked about before when we had a chat just before this um Elliot was that you I know that you uh your team also you provide um sell some um refreshments don't you um I think you said popcorn and I can't remember what else it was that's right yeah we sell the traditional elements of circus um obviously as we said before if it's the first experience of circus it's lovely to have that sort of bucket of popcorn or you know the the candy saw um so we sell candy floss uh popcorn and slush puppy drinks yeah um which work very very well and it sort of gives that traditional elements the smell of the circus oh yeah but yeah so we hold soul selling rights to that okay for everything else um the school can do most schools do hot drinks and barbecues which again on a sunny day is great with a barbecue um a lot of schools we found this week especially have done a school uniform store just outside um again it's a good idea you know it's a great idea or get cakes or things like that um but yeah also different things that they can do just to earn a little bit more fundraising money on the side of this um but we sell the uh the products just to subsidize our visits um as you can imagine with the ever growing cost of fuel and accommodation expenses for the cast and crew but yeah that's the reason we do it and just to give that element of traditional you know people expect that when going to the circus they expect the one floss and it gives that element of uh the smell and the taste of uh traditional aspect so yeah so okay so for a PTA they could maybe tag on a bit of extra fundraising like you say by having something because once you've got 200 people committed to going to school on one at one time it's a really great opportunity yeah you I feel like you would really miss an opportunity if you didn't do at least something something on the way in or on the way out so yeah absolutely you know it's a profitable event with that and it's uh you might as well use it to your advantage to be able to fundraise just a little bit more extra cash for the school um to fundraising funds yeah yeah and then once the circus has finished once you finish the performances for the day what happens then um so we normally set we we normally um dismantle the tent um everything inside the seating goes back in the van everything goes back in the van and it normally takes between about 40 minutes to an hour which is uh we always have a a record every every day our team are great our team are fantastic and they're uh everybody you know helps and uh from the artists you see from the dancers to the um the the circus artists you see in the in the ring in the circus ring everybody helps and dismantles the events um and we don't need any bit any help it's always nice to have liter pick us okay um just tell us but if not we can do that during the cooldown but we're very quick and we're very sort of efficient with what we do um and again the structure has um you know manoeuvred over 40 years to be able to work within that school and as long as we've got gate access to get out we're absolutely fine yeah wow it's it's very impressive like you uh do you have a uh sort of an annual record of the your fastest pack down time and see if you can beat it yeah it depends on the team and the weather obviously oh and the weather yes of course I think the record we've done this year was about 25 minutes which is pretty impressive it's that is very impressive wow I think we were waiting for the rain to come on that day we were like we were just trying to get going before the rain would come but again like we said before um you know the the event is a rainproof attraction. Oh that's great to know yeah it's it's great for PTAs I can imagine there's been plenty of stories of rain and wind and also and muddy grounds and things like that for different events. Depending on the weather you know if rain at wind or anything else we can still go ahead with the show. Yeah um but you know if it rains or something people don't don't realise when they're sat inside the big top and watching the show.

Of course yeah yeah oh that yeah I'm I'm actually in the middle of preparing an episode all about the weather um not saying that I have any magic wands to fix the weather or anything but just because it's such when you're in the summer season as a PTA and you've got outside events it's such a massive elephant in the room really you can't control it you've got to try and manage it as best you can and to to have an event booked which is kind of like an outside event but it's weatherproof would take such a lot of um stress away from your shoulders I think just to know that it's a definite thing it's definitely going ahead you don't have to watch the weather forecast so I think that's that's really good to be a weatherproof event in the UK it's so predictable isn't it in the UK regardless of where you are it's so predictable now.

But it's nice to see you know once we've got the tents up and things and everybody's sort of warm and sort of inside the tent um but you don't even know it's raining outside which is great.

Yeah. So so do you have a a sort of circus season that runs just in the summer months Elliot or you're are you all year round? You're not all year round are you?

No no so we we we tour from April to up to set to September okay um every year um which works very very well again like we said with the weather forecast and everything else um but they're the longest months to be able to you know to to do it especially with weather conditions but um but yeah we normally um and then when we do the schools during the term times um and then when the schools break up we normally do farm parks holiday parks theme parks yes and also we provide entertainment for them as well yeah and then when we start in September we normally we do theatre shows and we sort of do the advertising and the show promotion and things and then we do an eight week uh pantomime tour during the winter. Oh wow and is that in is that inside a school you don't bring a tent for the panto no no we don't bring no again it's sort of where they're permitted with the uh the pantomime but um but yeah it's um it goes inside the school halls and things and we do a theatre tour as well so weekdays schools and then on the weekends we do um you know we do theatres and all sorts of different places across the country um and then so we we don't stop really I mean only the only downtime we have is January but we're still with admin and things like that we're still doing stuff and uh and still get stuff ready so but we're we're open you know 24-7 pretty much not like you know other shows just do five day weeks of things but we're always on emails if there's any questions last minute you know sort of the night before the events at 9 10 p.m you know a a quick email to say or just checking everything's okay you know and everything else but yeah we're open 24 seven you know seven days which is great okay and so if somebody was interested in uh making a booking with you do you get booked up far in advance or how do you quite a yeah yeah exactly so we'd normally suggest between 12 to 16 months prior to get wow okay yeah get the best availability really I mean the weekend shows go um very very quickly yeah um as you imagine because you've got a lot more scope with the 600 ticket sales yeah um but yeah it's always worth an email because you never know you know late availability what we might have you know weekday availability or even weekend availability the off Sunday and quite surprisingly people don't seem to go for the seasonal days what I mean by that is sort of you know like um Father's Day oh yes okay May bank holidays they always work very very well it's great because you can know you can link the Father's Day into the barbecue yes yeah say dads go free for certain things or pound off the dads yeah which works very very good um and then May bank holidays again people think people are just enjoying the weather going out and they won't come to an event but it works very very well because people are looking for something to do you know they don't normally get a Monday off. No that's true but they're always looking for something to do with the kids but it works very very well so if you can grab those sort of Father's day May bank holiday days they're great they work very very well and again because it's a bank holiday you can have the three show day um rather than two show day it's not during school hours or anything like that. Yeah the only thing I want to talk about is um obviously with a three show day you've got um you know 600 tickets to sell if you sell them at 12 a ticket you're looking at a potential income of 7200 pounds um for one afternoon of fundraising which is great you know that's the overall income and obviously you've got to get your expenses off that and your advertising costs and things like that. But uh for just one afternoon it's quite an amazing sort of um income for the school and what we tend to find if you you've got two big events on in one year in one summer you've got your you know your summer fair separate to your circus you've got two incomes there rather than squeezing them together and sort of diving the income there you know it works very very well obviously with a two two show format it's slightly slightly less um but it's still a very good profit margins there for for fundraisers and schools.

Yeah and what I like about it as a PTA volunteer is that the PTA involvement is actually quite low. You know there's nothing to do there's no months of sort of planning stores and things. I mean if you wanted to add in stores like you've said you could just do maybe a couple of things but you can really choose to to do as much as you want and as long as you've got the advertising and the marketing sorted then that's kind of that's kind of it.

So in terms of PTA volunteer time it's not a very big chunk of volunteer time which is which is really good for the for the amount of money you could potentially raise is a really good balance isn't it exactly yeah I mean we've just had somebody um have some feedback this morning from a school in uh I can't remember I think it was Sheffield last week um and the first thing she said was I can't believe how little you needed from us to be able to have a successful event um which is lovely to see it's lovely to get that feedback and if you go going back to the advertising things um if you go on our social media platforms we always put in our you know quotations and recommendations up because it's such a great sort of um advertising thing as well as to show that it is a professional show and it is you know people do value the show and I think to be honest they're quite surprised when they come and it's such a big production I mean we've got so much in the show it's about a two hour show just squeezed into one hour. Oh wow all the big you know the big stuff and it's quite fast paced you know there's lots of colours and lots of costumes um so I think people are quite surprised that the PTA have put on such a big professional event yeah uh that they don't expect that sort of thing. Do you know what I mean? It's an event for the school and we want to support that and they didn't realise how big of a production it is without being so big to be able to you know we've got a small tent and a small rink and all that stuff but it's um we've got a giant one of the most popular acts this year was um the giant panda which obviously isn't a real panda okay don't ruin the illusion yeah we we um change a show every year it's all very different every year um I mean last year we always try and be creative with the ideas we have obviously with the other shows we can sort of pinpoint things from different shows like last year we made it snow inside the big top which is great. Oh wow but the kids love that yeah we had a giant inflatable um polar bear that came out to large penguins and all this sort of stuff this year we've got um bubbles that fill the the circus tents and all this sort of stuff so it's very sort of interactive and people seem to enjoy it um I think the adults enjoy it just as much as the kids but uh but no it's great it's good fun as well.

So because you do change the show year to year do you get quite a lot of repeat bookings from schools then?

Yes we would normally say I mean 80% of our bookings are through personal recommendation or pre-booking so repeat book. But we'd normally we'd advise with scores larger schools it's normally about two years to be able to return two or three years. And then small schools it's normally about four years so you get the next generation children. Yeah um you don't you know you obviously don't want to milk it every year and it'd be this you know we saw that last year we don't want we're gonna you know we're gonna wait until we see that again yeah um but we can suggest that between two to about four years is a good recommended time to wait um to rebook just because we know it works that that way yeah you know the the pattern of people booking um works very well and it gives you the reason to do something different. Absolutely yeah yeah previously you know or things like that but uh but it works very very well and with that four year format it gives them the new generation of children that potentially haven't seen a circus before.

Yeah okay so if somebody wanted to get in touch with you and talk about a booking what's the best way for them to do that?

So if you get in touch with my dad Peter um all our contact details are on our website or our social media platform. So it's the National Festival Circus um and we'd normally ask for um a hundred pound deposit that's all okay and that that secures your date really um and then payment is due just before the event. Right okay and uh you know on request we can you know advise anything further advertising and uh marketing leads and things but uh but I'd recommend you know looking at this you know a year or just over a year in advance to get the best possibility um for your school um I mean the June and July goes very very quick as you can imagine. Yes yeah so we don't just do fundraising you know it's uh sometimes I know a lot of the schools do residential weeks on the last week of term um but again it works a lot better because you don't have the um you know the coach journeys to Alton Towers or you don't have the coach journeys to theater or anything like that. It's sort of bringing the the show to you um which works very very well if you've got that funding from the school um it's almost like a residential trip without going too far yeah for the children. Yeah um so probably the last week of July or the third week in July uh when you normally do three or four days um for the residential um oh nice yeah so that's another option you can do um except from the you know the fundraising yeah so looking ahead to 2027 are you pretty booked up already for 2027 it's getting there yes we've sort of we work on a list you know obviously people uh message us to say can you just put us on our list when you get you know open your diary for 2027 so we usually normally repeat bookings of people that you know generally know how we work and how it works and they've had success before um so we normally get those guys in first and try and get those in but um weekend availability you're looking at about I think we're about 50% full at the moment which is still great it's great you know it's it's great to look at that and uh and try and uh get those weekend availabilities before the week weekends go um but yes we still have availability depending on your area okay okay so just basically the message is get in touch as soon as you can if you want a choice of dates. Absolutely yeah it's the first availability yeah great okay and you're on Facebook aren't you as well I think I've seen your Facebook page yeah we update every week as you probably know um we do all lots of different quotes and things on there and advertising opportunities and things so um it's always worth um giving us a like on Facebook to keep up to date with what's going on and the show and the style and things and uh there's always photos that you can use for advertising and promotional videos and little things that you share on there that um give you that support to you know as an extra advertising thing as well.

And is it mostly primary schools you go to do you ever go to secondary schools at all or yes we can do I mean circus is all ages really yeah um I mean our prime clientele is primary schools okay um nurseries and play groups and um all sorts of different things like that.

The only other thing that we do as well if you don't have a field which is worth mentioning if you don't have a field um a lot of the schools hire the local um you know the community centres that have a field next door maybe okay that's a good tip yeah very very well recreational ground as long as again access of three meters um usually that works very very well and sometimes the community centres you know love to support that sort of thing and again the advertising spaces you've got there um might be quite quite good for people passing and things like that rather than just the score for advertising um but again that can work so again send us an email if there's something you're worried about or the questions you have we can always answer them with you know we've been at it for 40 years there's a long time um experience that what what we can do and what we can help to support your school on PTA with fundraising.

And I guess actually if you did hire a a community area that might help with uh parking mightn't it then might be a bigger car park for the people coming to watch the show because I guess that is something that a PTA might need to consider is where to put all those cars because you don't often have like 200 people coming at once leaving their cars for an hour.

Yeah that's the other thing as well with what we do we obviously only um have 200 at each performance which is a great uh because we do multiple performances a lot of the shows um maybe would do you know a bigger a bigger tent and do you know five or six hundred seats at all at each performance yeah which is quite ambitious when you're going in you know you sort of open the doors half an hour before but because we only have 200 at each show um everybody has a ringside seat everybody's there and can see everything you know quite literally from about five or six feet in front of them which is great yeah um but also the parking is a great point um you know you spread the audience over the full day with 200 at each show so if you've got a small car park you know you don't have to worry too much because as soon as the first people are out maybe for the first show the second people will be coming in for the second show and then vice versa with the third show as well um so you have that constant you know customer footfall really rather than them all coming in one one time and that's it you know you've got the constant um you know formula of people coming in all day um which works great as well with the popular with you know obviously you said with the stores and things if you do a barbecue or things um it spreads them out throughout the day so it's not quite as uh quite as demanding in one one session.

Yeah. Yeah. Not so intense all at one go.

That's it, exactly. And with the schools, obviously, as you know, with the schools being a community-based, you know, place, uh, people are used to coming to school, walking to school, cycling to school, and all sorts of things like that. So they're uh it's nothing to worry about with that sort of thing, really.

Yeah, that's good. Oh, do you know something popped into my head then? Oh yes, that's what it was. Um something that you mentioned right at the start of our chat, Delit, but it kind of got a bit lost was that you said you've got all the right documentation in place, which is something else that PTAs would be wanting to know. So I so you're all DBS checked and you've got a risk assessment, I think you've already made. So can you just talk us through those things?

Yeah, exactly. We we're insured, you know, um, we've got insurance documents, we are all PAT tested for our um electrical supplies with our PA system. Um, we've got risk assessments throughout the whole day, we've got method statements, um, everyone's DBS checked, especially for weekdays, because we're on site.

Yeah.

Um the school hours and things, although we're not on site, you know, inside the school. Yeah, uh on the field next door or you know within the school of things, but we are always DBS checked. We only employ people with DBS um and things like that. But we again we sort of develop this throughout our experience of what people want and what you know the safety guidance of what we've been told and things like that. So we're all permitted um to be able to provide as you know an easy and successful fundraiser for PTA. Um, but yeah, all it all it takes is again just an email just to say if you've got your insurance documents, yeah, just to keep file and things like that. Um I think the only other thing I would suggest is obviously um as a PTA or a fundraiser, there are all sorts of different circus shows out there provided for schools. Um we are the National Festival Circus. We our format works a little bit different to um some others and things, you know. Um so it's finding the right circus and the right show for your school to be able to um to get that formula of what you may want. Um, but we've bespoked to over the the 40 years to find exactly what what the scores are.

Yeah, that's brilliant. Well, thank you so much for explaining how everything works with your circus. It's actually really fascinating and it's made me wish that I had tried it when I was um chair of my PTA because I think you've um created something that that really has um that really fits with um a PTA so well. You know, you've really thought about how quickly and easily you can get on and off the site and and you know having having like a f a smaller, slightly smaller audience though, you know, makes it easier for everybody with the parking and you've got all your documents ready and it just sounds like it would be a really uh straightforward um but also really, really fun fundraiser for somebody to book for their school. So um yeah, thank you so much for coming to talk about it.

Absolutely, yeah. It's been fun to talk to you. Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.

Oh, that chat with Elliot has really made me wish I had tried a circus fundraiser at my school. I loved his suggestion of running a competition in your school for the children to design the circus ticket, as I think that is a really effective way of kickstarting the marketing for the circus at your school and gathering a bit of momentum right from the get-go. So I would definitely give that a try if I ever booked the National Festival Circus. And I was really impressed by how much thought they have put into making life easy for the school and the PTA team to mean that you're not struggling for volunteers or have many weeks of organising. It would definitely make a lovely change, I think, for one year to have a circus instead of a summer fate. And you might even raise more money or raise a similar amount, but without so much stress as you would at a summer fate. I know you do have to work hard to advertise and sell the tickets, but I think most of the PTAs uh around the country already have strategies in place for that or systems set up, and um Elliot said that his team can give you extra support with that if you're finding it tough. And I also talk about um uh talk in episode 24 about all the different ways you can get your message out to parents. So there are already a few ideas that you can try if you're finding that bit hard. Anyway, if you have had a visit from the National Festival Circus, I would love to hear from you. It would be interesting to hear how your ticket sales went, if you found that really difficult, or if it was quite straightforward, and if you decided to organise any extra sponsorship to help pay for the circus or any extra stores on the day, like Elliot was talking about. So do drop me a line, it's hello at ptapodcast.com, or just go to my website and fill out the contact me box. Thank you so much for listening today, and I will chat to you next time. Bye for now.