How to Plan a School Fete in Australia: Organiser Guide

Why school fetes deserve a proper plan

A school fete looks like a Saturday morning of cake stalls and lucky dips. Behind it sits a small operating business: dozens of stallholders, a cash float, food permits, volunteers on rosters, sponsorship invoices, a wet-weather decision, and a committee that has to hand back a reconciled profit to the P&C or P&F. The schools that raise the most money are rarely the ones with the most stalls — they are the ones who planned the logistics first and bought the bunting last.

This guide covers the whole cycle: committee structure, budgeting, stallholder booking, food and council requirements, money handling, raffles, volunteers, insurance and the run sheet for the day itself — written for a volunteer organiser with a full-time job and one term to pull it together.

Start with one owner and a committee that fits on one page

The single biggest predictor of a smooth fete is whether one person is clearly accountable for the event. Committees are excellent for decisions and terrible for execution unless every task has a name beside it.

A workable structure for most primary schools:

• Fete convenor — owns the timeline, chairs meetings, makes the final call on wet weather.
• Stallholder coordinator — recruits and books stallholders, manages the site plan, collects stall fees.
• Treasurer — budget, floats, EFTPOS reconciliation, final acquittal.
• Food and compliance lead — permits, food safety, allergen signage, council correspondence.
• Volunteer coordinator — rosters, briefings, check-in desk, relief cover.
• Marketing and sponsorship lead — local business packages, social media, school newsletter, signage.

Keep the committee to six or seven people and give each a written scope. Anything without an owner quietly becomes the convenor's job at 11pm the week before.

Set the fundraising target before you book anything

Work backwards from a number. A fete with 40 stalls, a food precinct, a stage and a second-hand book tent might gross $25,000–$45,000 and net $12,000–$25,000 once costs are paid, but the range is enormous and depends almost entirely on attendance and stall mix. Decide what the school needs — new shade sails, a literacy program, a bus fund — and budget to that figure rather than hoping.

A simple fete budget structure

• Income: stall fees, food vendor fees, entry or wristbands (optional), raffle ticket sales, sponsorship, donations, activity stalls (lucky dip, craft, games), cake stall, book stall.
• Direct costs: ride or amusement hire, stage and sound, marquees, tables and chairs, power distribution, signage and printing, cleaning and waste, first aid, security if required.
• Overheads: insurance top-up, permits, EFTPOS fees, volunteer catering, thank-you gifts.
• Contingency: hold 10% aside. Something always needs a hire extension or an extra skip bin.

Stall fees are the most misunderstood line. Price them against what a stallholder can realistically make in a five-hour fete, not against what the school wishes it could raise. Our guide to pricing stall fees for Australian events covers the tiers, inclusions and the power and trestle-table upsells that lift revenue without scaring vendors off.

Choose the date: term calendar, clashes and UV

Most Australian school fetes land in Term 4 (October–November) or late Term 1, because that is when families are on campus and the weather is workable. Before locking a date, check:

1. Term dates and pupil-free days for your state, plus any school camp or swimming carnival already booked.
2. Local clashes — other school fetes, council festivals, agricultural shows and market days within a 10km radius. Two fetes in the same suburb on the same Saturday split the crowd.
3. Community or religious holidays that affect stallholder and family turnout.
4. Sports finals and long weekends — a fete on the Saturday of a long weekend loses a measurable share of families.
5. Sun and heat — a Term 4 fete in Queensland or the NT needs shade and water stations treated as core infrastructure, not extras.

Lock the date at least 12 weeks out. Stallholders and ride operators book spring weekends months ahead, and the good ones are gone by eight weeks.

Draw the site plan before you sell a single stall

Site planning is where a fete succeeds or collapses into a bottleneck. Sketch the school grounds on a grid and place, in this order:

• Entries and exits, with a separate marshalled access point for vehicles and deliveries early in the morning.
• Food precinct — clustered, away from the cake stall and away from bouncy castles, with power, water, bins and grease management close by.
• Rides and amusements — level ground, clear of overhanging branches and powerlines, with a buffer zone.
• Stage and PA — facing the open grass, angled away from classrooms and close to power.
• Toilets, including accessible toilets and a nappy-change point, signposted from the entry.
• First aid post — central, visible, with a clear vehicle path to it.
• Stall rows — 3m frontage per stall as a working minimum, wider aisles than feels necessary (a pram plus a shopper plus a queue is 2.5m of human traffic), and a mix of paid stalls and free community or student-run stalls so the crowd keeps moving.
• Waste and recycling stations, and a plan for who empties them mid-event.

Publish the site plan as a numbered stall map. Stallholders who know their exact spot arrive calmer, set up faster and complain less. For the paperwork side of running a site with vendors, see getting council approval for an event in Australia.

Recruit the right stallholder mix

A fete with eleven candle stalls and no coffee will underperform regardless of the weather. Aim for a mix that gives people a reason to stay for two hours rather than twenty minutes:

• Food and drink — coffee, a hot food option, something sweet, something cold, and a vegetarian or halal-friendly choice. One operator per category, agreed in advance.
• Activities for kids — craft, face painting, games, a reptile or farm-animal show, a science table.
• Market stalls — handmade goods, plants, produce, second-hand books, toys, art.
• Community and information stalls — local clubs, charities, the school's own fundraising stalls, a sponsor or two.
• Rides and amusements — booked directly with a provider, with insurance and operator accreditation confirmed in writing.

Recruit online with a single booking form that captures business name, category, insurance certificate, power and water needs, vehicle arrival time and contact number. Chasing this by email thread is the most reliable way to lose a week. A stallholder booking system pays for itself the moment you have more than about fifteen vendors, because it also produces your site plan, your arrival schedule and your fee reconciliation.

What to put in the stallholder agreement

• Stall size, location on the map, and what is included (trestle table, chair, marquee, power).
• Arrival and bump-in window, bump-out deadline, and vehicle access rules.
• Fee, payment deadline, and the refund policy if the fete is cancelled for weather.
• Insurance requirement (public liability, certificate of currency supplied before the day).
• Food handling obligations, waste removal and what cannot be sold (e.g. no raffle tickets sold by stallholders without approval).

Food, permits and food safety

Food is the highest-risk and highest-revenue part of a fete, and it is the area where volunteer organisers most often assume an exemption that does not exist.

In Victoria, for example, FoodTrader states plainly that under the Food Act 1984 temporary food premises — including a stall, tent or marquee at a school fete or festival — must be registered with, or notified to, the registering council before selling food, and that a Statement of Trade is lodged for attendance at a food event. Other states run equivalent schemes under the national food standards, administered by local councils.

Practical steps:

1. Contact your council's environmental health team early — six to eight weeks out. Ask what your food stalls need: notification, a Statement of Trade, or registration for a temporary premises. Ask specifically about school-run fundraising stalls, because treatment of charity cake stalls varies by council.
2. Get certificates of currency from every external food vendor and keep them on file.
3. Brief volunteer food handlers — hand washing, gloves, hair tied back, no handling food while unwell, separate raw and ready-to-eat areas.
4. Control temperature — cold storage at 5°C or below, hot food at 60°C or above, and a plan for keeping it there on a warm day.
5. Label allergens on cakes, slices and packaged goods. A simple card listing the eight common allergens per item is enough for a cake stall and prevents a serious incident.
6. Ban home-canned or home-preserved low-acid goods, raw egg products in warm weather, and anything frozen-then-thawed without control.

More detail on vendor-side obligations is in food safety compliance for market vendors in Australia.

Money: floats, EFTPOS and reconciliation

Fetes leak money in the gap between a volunteer taking a five-dollar note and the treasurer banking it. Design that flow deliberately:

• One bank account for the event, and a written policy that no cash is held at anyone's house.
• Floats issued against a signed sheet — typically $100–$200 per stall, counted in front of the stall captain.
• Contactless payment at every high-traffic point. Cake stalls, sausages, drinks and activities should all accept tap-and-go; summing up cash is where queues form and sales are lost.
• Wristbands or pre-paid card systems for rides and activities if you have several paid kids' activities — they speed up queues and remove cash from the busiest area.
• Two-person counting at close, counted per stall, recorded on a single sheet, banked the same day or locked in the school safe.
• Reconcile against the budget within a week, while the memories are fresh and the receipts are still in the tub.

Set the cash rule before the day: money collected by a stall goes to the stall captain, is counted by two people, and travels to the treasurer's desk in a sealed bag with a tally slip. Volunteers follow a clear rule; they improvise when there isn't one.

Raffles, lucky dips and fundraising compliance

Raffles are the classic fete fundraiser and also the classic compliance trap. Gaming and fundraising law is state-based and the exemptions are narrow and specific:

• In New South Wales, fundraising raffles fall under the Charitable Fundraising Act 1991 and are administered by NSW Fair Trading.
• In Victoria, minor gaming and raffles are regulated by the Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission.
• In Queensland, they sit with the Office of Liquor and Gaming Regulation.

Many states provide limited exemptions for small school or charity raffles, but the thresholds, ticket printing rules and record-keeping obligations differ — and a raffle that needs an authority must display the authority number on its tickets and advertising. Three habits keep you safe:

1. Check the rule for your state and the prize value before printing tickets, and keep a copy of the guidance on file.
2. Keep records — ticket serial ranges sold, prize values, draw date, winner details and how unclaimed prizes are handled.
3. Keep it separate from gambling-adjacent products — no poker-style games, no cash prizes in most school contexts, and never advertise a raffle to children as a way to win money.

Lucky dips, guessing competitions and silent auctions are lower-risk but still need honest odds, published prize lists and clear terms.

Volunteers: roster for energy, not just coverage

A fete runs on roughly 60–120 volunteer shifts for a mid-sized school. Rosters fail when they treat all shifts as equal.

• Two-hour shifts maximum at busy stalls, with a relief volunteer pencilled in for each block.
• Pair inexperienced volunteers with someone who has done it, and publish a one-page brief per stall: prices, cash handling, what to do when stock runs out, who to call.
• Protect the setup crew. Bump-in starts at 6am and it is always the same six people. Assign parents by class and rotate year to year.
• Check working-with-children requirements for your state and confirm which roles require a clearance.
• Feed your volunteers — the difference between a volunteer who returns next year and one who doesn't.

Insurance, risk and child safety

School fetes are held under the school's public liability arrangements, but third-party stallholders, ride operators and food vendors bring their own exposures. Confirm in writing:

• What the school's policy covers, and what the P&C needs to arrange separately.
• That every external vendor supplies a certificate of currency naming adequate cover.
• That ride and amusement operators supply operator accreditation and current inspection records.
• That a documented risk assessment exists, including emergency evacuation, serious injury response, lost child procedure, and severe weather triggers.
• That first aid is staffed for the whole event, including bump-in and bump-out, with an AED on site and a clear vehicle access path.

Two Evntle guides do this properly: event risk management plans for Australian organisers and event insurance for Australian organisers.

Child safety deserves its own line item. Photography consent, supervised toilet access, a marshalled entry so children cannot leave unnoticed, and a named lost-child procedure are not optional extras on a school site.

Marketing timeline that matches how families decide

Most fete attendance is decided in the final ten days, but stallholders and sponsors commit far earlier. Work two tracks:

• Twelve weeks out — date locked, stallholder bookings open, sponsorship prospectus drafted.
• Eight weeks out — sponsors approached, ride booked, permits lodged.
• Four weeks out — posters in every classroom, school newsletter, local Facebook groups, community noticeboards.
• Two weeks out — stallholder map published, volunteer roster finalised, pre-sale wristbands and raffle tickets on sale.
• Final week — countdown posts, a "what's on" program, and a clearly communicated weather decision deadline.

Local business sponsorship is the cheapest money at a fete. A three-tier package — stall naming rights, program advertising, and a logo on the entry arch — is easy to sell and easy to fulfil. See how to get sponsors for a market or festival in Australia.

The wet-weather decision

Every outdoor fete needs a written trigger and a decision time, agreed with the principal, before the week of the event. Decide:

• The forecast threshold that triggers a cancellation or postponement (for example, a severe weather warning, or forecast sustained rain and wind above a set level).
• Who makes the call and by when — usually the convenor with the principal, by 3pm the day before.
• How it is communicated: school app, social media, website, and a recorded message on the fete phone number.
• What is refundable. Publish the stallholder refund policy in the agreement so a cancellation doesn't become a dispute.
• Whether there is an indoor fallback — hall-based stalls, a shortened program, or a rescheduled date already held with the ride operator.

Read the full method in outdoor event weather planning in Australia.

Fete day run sheet

• 5:30am — site crew on ground, marquees and power first, signage second.
• 6:30am — food vendors and ride operators arrive, vehicles off site by 7:30am.
• 7:30am — stallholder bump-in opens with volunteers guiding to numbered spots.
• 8:30am — floats issued, cash sheets signed, briefings done.
• 9:00am — gates open; entry marshals and first aid in position.
• Mid-morning — convenor walk-around: bins, queues, water, volunteer relief.
• 2:00pm — last sales, raffle drawn, winners announced on PA.
• 3:00pm — bump-out, stallholder counts handed in, site cleared and checked.
• 4:30pm — cash counted by two people, site handover to the school, thank-yous posted.

After the fete: the part that makes next year easier

Within two weeks, while the committee still remembers everything: reconcile actual income and costs against the budget stall by stall; report the net result to the P&C and principal in a one-page summary; record what sold well, which stalls underperformed and where the bottlenecks were; thank sponsors, vendors and donors with the fundraising result attached, because that is what earns the next sponsorship; and write a short handover document covering the timeline, supplier contacts, permit notes and what to change next year.

That document is the single most valuable artefact a fete committee produces. It turns a one-off scramble into a repeatable event the next committee can run in half the hours.

Run the fete on a system, not a spreadsheet

Stallholder bookings, site maps, arrival schedules, fee collection and vendor communication are all the same data viewed differently. Evntle gives organisers a single place to publish an event, take stallholder applications, allocate and map stalls, collect fees, and manage vendors through to bump-out — with a vendor storefront and POS that stallholders can use on the day.

You can try the full flow in the Evntle live demo without signing up, or create a free organiser account and set up your fete in an afternoon. If you are still recruiting, start with how to recruit vendors for spring events in Australia.

Frequently asked questions

How far in advance should you plan a school fete?

Twelve weeks is the practical minimum for a mid-sized fete. Stallholders and ride operators book spring weekends months ahead, council food notifications need lead time, and sponsorship conversations work best at eight weeks out. Larger fetes with rides, stages and major sponsorship should start a full school term earlier.

Do school fete food stalls need a permit?

In most Australian states, yes — temporary food premises at a school fete must be registered with or notified to the local council before trading, and vendors typically lodge a statement of trade for the event. Rules for genuine school-run fundraising stalls, such as a cake stall, vary by council, so confirm with your council's environmental health team six to eight weeks before the fete.

Do school fete volunteers need a Working with Children Check?

Requirements differ by state and by role. Many states require a clearance for volunteers in child-related work, and schools often apply their own policy on top. Check your state's working-with-children authority and the school's volunteer policy before finalising rosters.

How much should a school fete charge for a stall?

Price against what a stallholder can realistically earn in a five-hour event. A common structure is a base fee for a 3m stall, an add-on for power, water or a marquee, and a discounted rate for community and student stalls. External food vendors usually pay a higher fee or a percentage arrangement, agreed in writing.

What is a realistic fundraising result for a school fete?

It varies enormously with attendance, stall mix and weather, so avoid publishing a target you have not modelled. Build the budget from stall fees, food vendor fees, activity stalls, raffle sales and sponsorship, deduct direct costs and a 10% contingency, then track actuals per stall on the day so next year's budget rests on your own numbers.