Hosting a car boot sale

Wolfsbayne

We're a nfp tennants association hosting a fun day on a large field we lease from the council to try and raise funds for various projects across the estate.

We would like to host a car boot sale but have never done this before and were wondering if anyone here had any advice? We shall be ringing the council and police tomorrow regarding the rules and legislation in place but has anyone here held one before and how did you do it? What wouldnt you do?

On the same note, we're hoping to get some community groups to come and do some demonstrations and some local crafts people to have a mini craft market - any ideas for these please?

thanks in advance

Owain_Moneysaver

Public liability insurance.
Stewards and first aiders - will a local business sponsor steward t-shirts? St John(etc) Ambulance
Local police or fire brigade might do a police dog / crushed car evacuation demonstration
Porta loos
Licences for live / recorded music. Public address system.

Wolfsbayne

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Public liability insurance.
Stewards and first aiders - will a local business sponsor steward t-shirts? St John(etc) Ambulance
Local police or fire brigade might do a police dog / crushed car evacuation demonstration
Porta loos
Licences for live / recorded music. Public address system.

We were only thinking of 20 - 30 cars on a one off occasion but thanks for the ideas, we hadn't thought of insurance

Savvy_Sue

However many cars you're thinking of having, I'd still say you should have insurance.

It might be worth getting some quotes which would cover you for a number of events each year - use a broker if you need help.

For any events like this, offer a small discount for paying in advance, eg £6 on the day, £5 if paid by the day before. If it's tipping it down with rain, some people won't turn up unless they have paid.

Publicity is key: you need to not just get cars there, but also buyers. If you can put posters up around the site in advance, do so. Fliers are good if you can get them into people's hands - maybe through local schools?

Wolfsbayne

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

However many cars you're thinking of having, I'd still say you should have insurance.

It might be worth getting some quotes which would cover you for a number of events each year - use a broker if you need help.

For any events like this, offer a small discount for paying in advance, eg £6 on the day, £5 if paid by the day before. If it's tipping it down with rain, some people won't turn up unless they have paid.

Publicity is key: you need to not just get cars there, but also buyers. If you can put posters up around the site in advance, do so. Fliers are good if you can get them into people's hands - maybe through local schools?

Thanks, i'll look into insurance tomorrow.

Im going to go all out publicity wise - press, radio, hundreds of posters and flyers. As its on a housing estate to benefit the residents they're going to be reminded of it in a newsletter, flyers and posters around the estate so fingers crossed that's 200+ people already (approx 500 - 600 on the estate).

Good idea about paying in advance, I had thought of booking in advance due to limit on cars so paying at the same time sounds reasonable to me.

thanks for the suggestions