A village fete is a small business that exists for four hours, staffed entirely by people doing it for nothing, run by a committee that half changes every year. Almost nothing about it is written down, which is why every new chair spends their first year rediscovering the same things in the same order. This is that list, roughly in the order it bites.
Start in January, not in May
The jobs that sink a fete are the slow ones - a licence with a statutory notice period, a field whose owner is away, an insurer who wants a risk assessment you have not written. Book the date first and work outwards.
| When | What |
|---|---|
| January | Fix the date and check it against every other fete, show and carnival within about ten miles - you are competing for the same stallholders and the same Saturday |
| January | Confirm the field or green in writing, with the owner or the parish council, including who is liable for damage to the ground |
| February | Sort public liability insurance, and decide whether it covers stallholders or whether each brings their own |
| February | Write the risk assessment. Your insurer, the landowner and the council may all ask for it, and it takes an hour once |
| March | Apply for anything with a notice period: road closure, alcohol, live music, a lottery registration if tickets are sold in advance |
| March | Open stall bookings. Early is what gets you the good stalls; the ones you chase in June are the ones nobody else wanted |
| April | Book the big-ticket attractions - the marquee, the bouncy castle, the band, the dog show judge |
| May | Posters, parish magazine, local press, and the village social media pages |
| June | Volunteer rota, float and change, signage, and confirm every booking in writing |
| The week before | Wet-weather decision point, final numbers to every supplier, site plan |
The paperwork nobody warns you about
None of this is difficult, and all of it has a deadline. Check the current detail with Cornwall Council rather than with last year's chair - the rules move, and "we have always done it this way" is not a defence.
- Public liability insurance. Usually the single thing that must exist before anything else can. Some parish councils extend their own cover to village events; many do not. Ask, in writing.
- A risk assessment. Not a formality if you have a bouncy castle, hot food, vehicles moving on a field, or a crowd near a road.
- Selling alcohol needs a Temporary Event Notice from the council, and a standard notice has to be given at least ten working days before the event - not counting the day you send it or the day of the event. Leave a month.
- Food stalls need to be registered as food businesses with their own local authority, normally at least 28 days before they trade. That is the stallholder's job, but it is your problem on the day, so ask for it when they book.
- Live or recorded music generally needs a music licence covering the performance. Check whether the venue or the parish already holds one before you buy a second.
- Raffles and tombolas. A raffle drawn at the fete, with tickets sold only there and then, is normally exempt. Sell tickets in advance or in the village shop beforehand and you are into small society lottery territory, which has to be registered with the council first.
- Closing a road needs a council application months ahead, and is the item most likely to be refused late.
- First aid cover proportionate to the size of the crowd, arranged rather than assumed.
Write down who holds what
The commonest fete failure is not a missing licence, it is a licence held by someone who moved away in March. Keep one shared list of every booking, permission and contact, with a name against each - and make sure two people can reach it.
Where the money actually comes from
Most committees assume the takings come from the gate. They rarely do. The gate covers the field and the insurance; the profit is made in three or four small, high-margin places.
| Line | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Stall pitch fees | Charged per pitch, taken in advance. Covers the fixed costs before a single visitor arrives - and a fee taken in advance is what stops a stallholder not turning up |
| Refreshments | Tea, cake and a barbecue. The highest margin on the field and the reason people stay for a third hour |
| Raffle and tombola | Donated prizes, so almost pure profit. Ask local businesses in March, not June |
| Games and the bar | Small takings each, and the thing that turns an hour's visit into an afternoon |
| Entry and parking | Predictable, unpopular if it is high, and usually best kept small or free with a bucket |
Whatever the mix, hold a float of real change, count takings in pairs, and bank it the same day. Card readers are worth having on the bar and the refreshments stall in particular - a signal-dependent reader in a Cornish field is unreliable, so take one that works offline or keep cash as the fallback.
Volunteers, and how to keep them
- Ask individuals for specific jobs. A plea for "help on the day" in the parish magazine produces nobody; asking someone to run the tombola from one until three produces them.
- Shifts of two hours, not four. People will say yes to two and mean it.
- Name a deputy for every job, including yours. Somebody will be ill.
- Put the rota somewhere everyone can see, with mobile numbers on it.
- Feed your volunteers, and make setup and clear-down separate asks - clear-down is the job that always falls on the same six people.
The weather plan
This is Cornwall in July: it will be beautiful, or it will be horizontal rain, and you will not know which until the Thursday. Decide in advance what your wet-weather version looks like - the hall instead of the field, half the stalls, no bouncy castle - and pick the day you decide, in writing, with your suppliers. A marquee big enough to matter has to be booked long before the forecast exists, so treat it as a fixed cost rather than a contingency.
The week before
Much of the rest is the same job as any large outdoor party, only with a committee: the things everyone forgets covers the practical kit, what a party costs in Cornwall gives you realistic figures for the hire lines, and if you need an arena act or something to keep children busy for an afternoon, party entertainment in Cornwall and marquee hire in Cornwall are the two categories you will be booking earliest.
For the day itself, see how a run sheet works: the marquee company's arrival time, the stall pitches, and every other booking on one timeline you can print or hand to a steward as a link.
Keep the whole committee on one plan
Set up your fete as an event and you get a dated checklist, a budget split across it, and somewhere the whole committee can see what is booked and what is not.
Start planning