Organising a school fete as a parents' association: tickets, meal sittings and drink tokens online

A school fete is a small event with big logistics

For most volunteers, the school fete or parents' association party is the biggest project of the year. There is a performance by the children, a meal, a bar, maybe a raffle or a bouncy castle, and all of it run by a handful of parents next to their jobs.

Everyone knows the classic approach: a slip in the school bag, an envelope of cash that has to come back, a list someone retypes into Excel at home, and on the day a table at the entrance where that list gets ticked off. It works, but it takes a lot of hours. Envelopes go missing and the kitchen only finds out at the last minute how many portions of meatballs in tomato sauce to prepare.

An online ticketing system takes over the counting and sorting. In this article we set up a typical school fete step by step in ClearTix and work out what it costs.

Our example is a primary school's spring fete:

• Saturday, performance by the classes at 14:00, then the meal
• Two sittings: 17:00 and 18:30
• Adult menu and children's menu, plus a vegetarian option
• Drink tokens and dessert on sale in advance
• Parents who did not order online can still pay at the entrance

Step 1: one event, clear ticket types

Start with one event, "Spring fete", and think about what you really need to count. At a school fete that is almost always the meals, not the entry. Many schools keep the performance free and only charge for the food.

So create one ticket type per menu:

Ticket type	What it is
Adult, meatballs in tomato sauce	adult menu
Adult, vegetarian	adult menu
Child, meatballs in tomato sauce	children's menu
Child, vegetarian	children's menu

You set the prices yourself. For each menu, set the number of portions the kitchen can serve as its capacity. When a menu sells out, it drops out of sale.

Cooking one pot of sauce for adults and children? Use a capacity pool: one shared stock that both ticket types draw from. That way you never sell more portions than there are in the pot, even at different prices.

Step 2: sittings as timeslots

With two sittings you do not want everyone at the table at 17:00. Turn on timeslot booking and create one timeslot per sitting, with the number of seats in the canteen or sports hall as its capacity. Parents first choose the sitting, then the menus. The time is on their ticket and in the confirmation e-mail, and you see per sitting how many people are coming.

For more on setting up a meal, read our article on organising a fundraising dinner with online registration. A school fete works the same way, only smaller.

Step 3: allergies through a short form

At a school fete many children eat too, and the kitchen wants to know whether to cook gluten-free or nut-free. Attach a form to the menus with one free text field: "Allergies or dietary needs". The answers appear next to the order in the attendee list.

Do not ask for more than you need. The name and e-mail address of the ordering parent are usually enough; you do not need children's names or classes to count portions of spaghetti. To be sure you are on the right side, read our checklist for GDPR-compliant ticketing.

Step 4: drink tokens and dessert in advance

At many school fetes the bar and the dessert stand bring in a good share of the takings. Sell drink tokens and dessert as an add-on to the order. Parents pay for everything in one go and get a QR voucher for their extras, which a volunteer ticks off at the bar with the same scanner used at the entrance. That means less change to handle on the day and a better idea of what to buy in.

Add-ons are included in the Studio and Pro plans.

Step 5: a discount for your own team or a member price

Do teachers or helpers get a free meal, or do members of the parents' association pay less? Create a discount code and share it only with that group. Discount codes work on every plan. Want to hide the lower price completely from anyone without the code? Use hidden tickets with an access code (Studio and Pro).

Step 6: share the link

The ticket link is a single URL. Put it in the school newsletter, the school app or the class chat groups, and print a QR code on the poster at the school gate. Parents pay with Bancontact, iDEAL or card through the Mollie or Stripe account you connect yourself. So the money goes straight to the account of the parents' association or the school, not to ClearTix first. With Mollie that is usually the next working day, with Stripe within 24 to 72 hours.

After ordering, every parent gets a QR ticket by e-mail and can also add it to Apple or Google Wallet. Wallet passes are included in every plan.

Step 7: on the day

At the entrance to the hall, volunteers scan tickets with their own smartphones. The QR scanner runs in the browser, with no app and no installation, and keeps working if the sports hall wifi is weak or drops for a moment.

There are always parents who did not order in advance. With the point of sale you keep selling at the entrance, in cash or with your own card terminal. Those sales come out of the same stock as online sales, so the kitchen does not suddenly run twenty portions short. The point of sale is included in Studio and Pro.

For the kitchen, the Quantities page shows per sitting how many menus of each type have been sold, including allergies. You can print that list or download it as CSV.

What does it cost?

ClearTix charges a fixed fee per ticket sold, not a percentage of your takings. Say the spring fete sells 400 paid tickets (menus):

Plan	Calculation	Cost
Free	400 × €0.39	€156
Studio	€29 + 400 × €0.25	€129

On top of that you pay the transaction fees of your own Mollie or Stripe account. A completely free event, for example registrations only for an open day, costs nothing.

The break-even point is around 208 tickets per month (€29 / (€0.39 − €0.25)): sell more and Studio is cheaper. The Free plan is limited to 3 events per month and shows ClearTix branding on the booking page and in the e-mails.

Which plan fits? If you only want to sell menus online and scan, the Free plan is enough: ticket types, timeslots, forms, discount codes and the scanner are all included. If you also want drink tokens as an add-on or a point of sale at the entrance, choose Studio. With 400 tickets this example is above the break-even point, so Studio is also cheaper. All rates and what each plan includes are on the pricing page.

Why this matters to us

ClearTix was built in Haaltert, by someone who volunteers in an association himself and was fed up with expensive or limited ticketing platforms. A parents' association works within the same limits: little time, volunteers who change from year to year, and takings that should go entirely to the school. That is why the money goes straight to your account and why we charge a fixed amount per ticket, not a percentage.

Quick checklist for your school fete

• One event, with a ticket type per menu and the portions as capacity
• One capacity pool if adult and children's menus come from the same pot
• Sittings as timeslots
• A short form for allergies, no unnecessary data
• Drink tokens and dessert as an add-on (Studio)
• One link and a QR code on the poster
• Browser scanner at the entrance, point of sale for those who did not order ahead (Studio)

Organising the school fete this year? Create a free account and set up your first event. The Free plan has no monthly fee and covers 3 events per month, so you can build and test everything calmly before sending the link to parents.