5 Tips for How to Get the Most from your Balloon Artist during the Summer

We’re here in the middle of summer. It picnic season, family reunion time, the farmers markets are open, and people are enjoying being outdoors. Balloon animals and other creations add color and fun to these events. Here are some tips to help you and your guests have the best experience with your balloon artist.

1. It’s hot. Neither the balloons nor your guests like the heat or direct sunlight. Please make sure you have a shady spot for your balloon artist. Indoors in an air conditioned space is best, but of course that’s not always possible, especially at a picnic. If you situate your artist under a tree or under a deck, remember he or she needs overhead clearance.
2. Balloons will only take so much abuse. We twist them and distort them, write on them, and make cool creations. That’s what they’re made for and they hold up pretty well to all this craziness. Balloons aren’t made to go on the ground, and you’d be amazed how sharp a blade of grass is. If you can, have a safe space for people to store their balloons if they’re busy eating, playing games, passing the grandbaby around, or whatever. If people lay them on the grass or leave them on a picnic table in direct sunlight, they’re likely to find nothing but a pile of balloon scraps when they come back.
3. Be realistic in your expectations. Most people hire us because they’ve seen our work and want the fancier balloons they know we can make. Fancy balloons take more time to make than a simple one-balloon dog or sword. If you want the fancy balloons, plan for only about 15 balloon creations per hour. If your crowd is large, either hire the balloon artist for several hours, or consider having more than one artist. With more than one artist the time spent waiting for a balloon is shorter.
4. Let your artist know in advance whether you’ll want them to circulate through the crowd or set up in one spot. Many of us use a pump and carry a lot of different balloons. If you want us to circulate through the crowd we’re happy to do so, but we need to pack differently, use a different style pump, and leave some of the specialty balloons behind. Be aware, too, that often in a big crowd kids line up and your artists ends up stuck in one spot even though they intended to move around.
5. If your child doesn’t know what he wants and needs suggestions, let the artist offer ideas. We make thousands of balloons so we have a pretty good idea what kids like. We also know what we’re best at so if we offer those suggestions we can keep your wait time to a minimum.