By Robyn Grace and Cara Waters
School fetes are ditching 20 cent lucky dips and free petting zoos in favour of large school festivals as they try to plug financial shortfalls with community fundraising.
With the most successful fetes raking in close to $100,000 and events taking up to 12 months to plan, the stakes for volunteer school committees are high.
Families enjoy a ride at Our Lady’s Ringwood school fete. Credit: Paul Jeffers
Some schools are now trucking in carnival rides, with one recent fete in the outer east charging $40 per child for all-day passes. At another, a silent auction offered dinner with former Richmond footballer Matthew Richardson.
Even the food has gone upmarket, with slow-cooked brisket and banh mi on offer alongside the humble sausage sizzle.
Westgarth Primary is still tallying the profit from its popular annual event on October 15, but organisers are hoping to top last year’s $90,000, which went towards upgrading and maintenance across the school’s two campuses.
The school, in Melbourne’s inner north, featured time-honoured fete favourites like face painting, pre-loved clothes and a cake stall, but this year also offered laser tag, a licensed bar and silent disco. Its auction alone raised $20,770 – smashing the target of $15,000.
Schools have devised many creative ways to fundraise, including in this case, a book sale.Credit: Paul Jeffers
Organiser Jo Wallis said the event had a lot of volunteer support but was important for the community, the school and particularly the kids.
“After Christmas and Halloween, the fete is their favourite day,” she said. “Rides, soft drink, fairy floss – what’s not to love?”
Wallis said the school stuck to a successful formula, with traditional stalls people expected, but had this year stepped up its sustainability measures. “And maybe the food has got a bit fancier,” she said.
At Our Lady’s Ringwood, children could pay $40 for unlimited rides on the Cha Cha or Chair-A-Plane, but the real winner was the mystery boxes, a modern version of the lucky dip, decorated and filled by the students.
“The kids just take so much passion and pride in what they create,” fete committee member Natalie Storrie said. “They sell out within an hour.”
The fete raised more than $20,000 and attracted about 4000 people.
“We just had such a good vibe the entire day. We’re really, really pleased with how it turned out,” Storrie said.
In Glen Iris in Melbourne’s south-east, St Cecilia’s fair chair Kylie Zennaro is expecting about 1000 people at their fete on Saturday, despite the school only having 247 students.
Many schools are now bringing in carnival rides to attract fundraising dollars. Credit: Paul Jeffers
Last year’s event raised about $30,000, but Zennaro is expecting this year’s tally to exceed $40,000. This year’s silent auction has already made $3000.
Previous fetes throughout their 40-year history have raised up to $80,000.
Saturday’s event will feature four rides and a climbing wall, a reptile display with baby crocodiles, a cake stall and a lolly shop.
St Cecilia is the patron saint of music, so Zennaro also has the school’s junior and senior choirs and a lineup of live performers.
“It’s one of those fairs that it really does bring back a lot of ex-students and past families and the parish families as well that just like to come along for the scones, jam and cream,” she said.
“There’s something for everybody there.”
One mother spent about $150 on her two children at their former primary school’s recent fair in Blackburn.
Vanessa, who did not want to use her surname, said the price – which included unlimited rides for $45 per child – kept her kids entertained for hours and finished with fireworks.
The lucky dip to win mystery boxes made by students at the Our Lady’s Ringwood fete. Credit: Paul Jeffers
“I thought the costs were reasonable,“she said. “It ended up being quite a reunion with old school friends and all the money goes to the school.”
Parents Victoria executive officer Gail McHardy said many fetes had grown bigger to compensate for the gap in fundraising during the COVID lockdown era.
McHardy said events like fetes were reliant on active parent communities and continued involvement from volunteers.
But she said if public schools were adequately funded by the state government, the need for fundraising wouldn’t be so great and that schools needed to be aware of their community’s changing capacity to contribute.
“The massive fete may work for some, but it doesn’t work for all,” she said.
Victorian Principals Association president Andrew Dalgleish said fetes were important events not just to raise funds, but to build community engagement.
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