Adding concessions to your event has many benefits, the most obvious being additional income. By offering your customers more to do, they are more likely to stay longer and tend to spend more money. People are more likely to visit an event when they know there will be a variety of things to do and see. It makes the outing more worth while, and increases the event's appeal to a larger, broader audience. As your event grows and people are spending more time at your location, they are going to be looking for other ways to spend their money, especially when children are in the equation.

Offering food and beverage items at your event, is a natural first step for hayride concessions. If your event does not already incorporate a concession stand then you should consider adding one. Not only does this provide additional income, but it also gives you another "feature" to advertise when promoting your event. "While at the Hayride, eat at the Crypt Café!" The first step to opening concessions is to check with local officials about the permits that will be required. There are also health regulations that must be met when selling food items at your event, and taxes that you will be responsible for collecting.

After you've taken care of the legalities, you have one of two options for running your concession stand. You can lease the space to an outside vendor to sell the concessions using their own equipment or you can equip, staff and run the stand yourself. Both options have advantages. While running the concessions yourself you will be able to collect all the profits, however, you will have the added responsibility of staffing, procuring and preparing the items for sale as well as the added investment and bookkeeping. It can be very appealing to let someone else take care of all that and just collect a percentage of the income, or a set rent amount. The income maybe less, but the headaches and liability are far less as well. The option you choose will be determined by the size of your event and how much involvement you want to commit to it.

Additional issues include the location of your concession stand, which is a very important component to its success. Your concessions should be located in a location highly visible your patrons. However, it is best to keep the concessions away from your ticket booth and queue lines to avoid excessive foot traffic and congestion. Be sure there is adequate trash and bathroom facilities available in close proximity to the concessions as well.

In addition to selling food and beverage items, selling merchandise offers additional income potential. Merchandise items can include glow items such as glow sticks, necklaces and bracelets. Hats and T-shirts that carry your event's logo, make excellent souvenirs as well as offering an added promotional bonus. Several other novelty items are available for resell with excellent markup potential. Items include Halloween pencils, erasers, balloons, masks, costumes and more.

Another option worth exploring is offering your patrons photo opportunities. Have one of your staff members dress in a costume, get a Polaroid camera, and offer to take the patrons' photo with the character. The customers will have a memorable souvenir to take home with them and you'd be able to advertise another feature, "Get your picture taken with a monster!"

Adding psychic or palm readers to entertain your customers during their visit can also be profitable. You can set up an area near your waiting lines for the person to work. Be sure that he/she brings a crystal ball and comes in costume. Work up an agreement with the psychic for a percentage of the income generated.

Be sure to also include some concessions for the children that may be too frightened to partake in the attractions at your event. Things like face painting can be fun for children of all ages, as well as the adults. Airbrush face painting is a new system, which utilizes stencils to speed up the process and decrease the required talent level for the face paint artist. (See Issue 14) You should be able to find someone on your staff with enough artistic talent, or you can recruit someone through a local high school or college art department. You can also use the system to expedite the makeup time on your actors as well.

Concessions broaden the appeal of your Hayride, by offering more activities for people to participate in, and promoting those activities brings a broader audience to that event. Attracting more patrons to the event can create additional income through both ticket sales and concession sales. The types of concessions that you provide at your event are limited only by your creativity and imagination. The broader the appeal that your event has to the consumer, the better your chances for a frightening success.

Link Moser is the operator and co-owner of Windhill Farm Haunted Halloween Hayrides in Loudon, New Hampshire. He can be reached at hayrides@windhill.com or visit his web site at http:/www.windhill.com/hay