10/07/2026
This time of year, I get lots of enquiries asking me to paint at school events, fetes and summer parties. Often, I’m asked to turn up and charge per face. This leaves me with the dilemma of taking the risk that the event will be busy whilst turning down paid jobs. This post below explains what it can look like for suppliers like myself in the events industry and gives practical solutions for how to make it work for both sides. Thank you to the The Artful Dabber - Face Painting & Body Art for articulating it much better than I could!!
https://www.facebook.com/share/1DVnGWH8Uz/?mibextid=wwXIfr
💡 A thought for anyone organising a fete, festival, community event or summer fair…
If you’re looking at face painting for your event, I’d encourage you to think about securing sponsorship rather than asking artists to work on a pay-per-face/pitch fee basis.
Why?…
One thing many organisers don’t realise is that face painters have a fixed earning capacity.
A retail stall can keep selling products all day. If more people attend, they simply sell more.
A face painter can’t. Unlike retailers, we can’t increase our income by simply working faster or painting infinite numbers of customers. Every design takes time, care and skill.
We can only paint so many faces in an hour while maintaining professional standards, hygiene and quality. Once that capacity is reached, that’s our earning limit, regardless of whether 300 or 3,000 people attend the event.
That’s why asking face painters to take all of the financial risk through pay-per-face/pitch fee arrangements simply isn’t a sustainable business model for many professionals.
By hiring a face painter on an hourly basis and funding it through sponsorship, everyone benefits.
Some businesses that are often keen to support community events via sponsorship include:
🏡 Estate agents
🧱 Builders’ merchants
🚗 Car dealerships and garages
🍕 Pizza chains, cafés and local restaurants
🛒 Supermarkets and convenience stores
🏦 Banks and building societies
⚖️ Solicitors and accountants
🏥 Dentists, opticians and healthcare providers
🏋️ Gyms and leisure centres
🌱 Garden centres and farm shops
🔨 Local tradespeople and construction companies
🏭 Local manufacturers and employers
So why not ask one of them to sponsor the face painting for your event? 🎨😊
For many businesses, sponsoring a popular family attraction is a fantastic way to demonstrate their support for the local community while putting their name in front of hundreds, sometimes thousands, of potential customers.
🎨 The sponsor receives valuable local publicity.
🎨 Your event has a professional attraction.
🎨 Families enjoy free face painting.
🎨 Every child has the same opportunity, regardless of their family’s budget.
🎨 The face painter is paid fairly for their time and expertise.
It’s a genuine win for everyone.
Imagine arriving at an event and seeing a sign that says:
🎨 FREE FACE PAINTING TODAY🎨
‘Kindly sponsored by ABC Estate Agents’
✅ The sponsor gains fantastic visibility.
✅ Families enjoy a free attraction.
✅ The organiser enhances the visitor experience.
✅ And the face painter can focus on creating beautiful artwork instead of worrying whether they’ll earn enough to cover the cost of attending.
To me, that’s a far better model for community events.
Perhaps it’s time we stopped thinking of face painting as a market stall, and started recognising it as a sponsored attraction.
