Fete food vendors - do you charge per site or % of sales?

Reader question:

Fete food vendors – do you charge for the site or do they ask for a % of sales?

Here is some advice from our Facebook community on what to charge outside fete food vendors:

The majority of readers suggested a set stall fee:

At our last fair, we had issues getting some of the outside stallholders to pay up with their percentage, so at the next fair, it will be a set fee and a donation for the raffle.
We held a fete last year where market stalls were charged $50 per site and we had food vendors come in and charged a % of sales. However, if we do it again, we would charge the food trucks a price of $200-$250 next time.
I think we charged $50 for ‘market stalls’ (a lot of these were parents businesses) but our P&C did the food. I would suggest more for food vendors but getting an indication from other events closer to you might be the best indicator.
Never agree to % of sales. You will be chasing people at the gate for your money. We charged about $150 but limited the number of food carts as food is one of the biggest money raisers for us. A bbq serving chicken sticks, sausages & burgers raises heaps!

This is a good idea:

Charge them a fee and get payment a week or so prior to the event.
Get payment at least a month in advance or you risk them pulling out at last minute and then you have little time to book in a replacement.

A few readers suggested % of takings, but reinforced the deposit idea:

We don’t offer stalls to market providers, only to a couple of food providers to give us variety. We ask for 20% of the days takings.
I would advise getting a non-refundable deposit from food vendors as we had some withdraw at the last minute last year. Food trucks are awesome though and we charged % of sales for them (10%-20%). They aren’t your biggest money earner but they significantly reduce the number of volunteers you need. We charged site fee which was less if you supplied tent tables chairs etc or more if this was needed.

If you are feeling confident:

We found that we made a great profit on ditching all outside food and had our own eat street type markets. We bulk bought all the containers and utensils, meat etc. It was easy to organise and people helped because they didn’t need to do anything except for on the day.

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Originally published 4 June, 2019