How Much $$$ Does A Park Event Cost?

@-Dan has experience doing events, could provide valuable insight.


edit: could just get a willing crew and do it with no funding. Group homie jam. Get a buddy with a fab shop or handy to make medals.

abjectwoeLet's say I just won the lottery (I didn't), wanted to do something good for the scene, and could somehow get buy in from my local mtn for a kind of Jib League Open-lite kinda thing...

How much $$$ would it cost? Insurance? Staff? Gear?

What the fuck even is the process?

**This post was edited on Apr 7th 2025 at 7:09:10pm

You can spend $0 or you can spend $1million. All depends on what you are trying to accomplish. There’s such a wide range of what an event can be.

Get a local shop to help out and a couple volunteers. Make some posters and your set

if there is a non-profit involved then people are much more likely to provide goods and services to write it off, have good pr/marketing, and/or support a cause they like. so a rail jam for mental health/adaptive program/local avy forecasters/etc. really goes a long way. people really love to support the dog teams but if you go this route, it’ll be much more authentic if you actually cared about whatever the nonprofit is. in theory, you could create a 501c3 that is about expanding access to events to more people and this event could be the sole thing to start.

so if half the entry fee went to pay for the event and half to the charity, plus a silent auction of donated items from local retailers plus a raffle of some sort and now you got yourself a full event going. could be a resume booster for sure!

**This post was edited on Apr 7th 2025 at 11:24:25pm

Really good question. I think there's generally two categories of events. Either there's a prize money on the line or there's just a bunch of gear prizes. For the first type of event, I think there would either have to be an entry fee, but open to everyone, or an invite only type situation. Not as big a fan of these as they're less inclusive and usually the winner tends to be pro/semi pro, whereas I think it's cooler when the winner is some local who rips but isn't sponsored yet.

That type of event is more of a challenge to put on. But the other type of event is more attainable and the cost can be closer to $0. All you really need is buy-in from the mountain and a handful of companies that are willing to put up some prizes. I've only helped organize one park event, but we had the mtn basically handle the registration/waivers and help put in some new features in the park. I think our local mtn has an understanding that these events do cost them a small amount of money but are worth it for them in terms of creating value for their passholders, building relationships with brands, etc. Regarding insurance, I wouldn't think that it would be an issue since people would have to purchase a pass or day ticket where they sign some sort of exclusion of liability anyway.

Tldr: $0 cost provided that the mtn is down, you can find sponsors who are down to donate prizes, and you got a crew of homies who can work together to run the event, film, hand out prizes, etc.

Depends massively on the size of the event, what the event is, and where it happens.

Is it in the normal parks, does it require a special build?

Just diesel and cat time can be a huge cost. Also what is the mtn getting out of it to make it worth while.

Or a contest could be a small rail jam where it's reletively quick and easy to build there for not as expensive.

I've thrown events for nearly $0 before because I built the rails and the setup for free, the mtn was on board, and judges were volunteers.

abjectwoeLet's say I just won the lottery (I didn't), wanted to do something good for the scene, and could somehow get buy in from my local mtn for a kind of Jib League Open-lite kinda thing...

How much $$$ would it cost? Insurance? Staff? Gear?

What the fuck even is the process?

Bro i think you got it backwards.....events are how you can MAKE money if you know what you are doing and you do it right and you can have a great time while doing it in the process!

I really appreciate the responses.

You'll all be invited if I ever get something put together.

G=unnarBro i think you got it backwards.....events are how you can MAKE money if you know what you are doing and you do it right and you can have a great time while doing it in the process!

not tryna be snarky but how exactly would you go about making money off a ski event

G=unnarBro i think you got it backwards.....events are how you can MAKE money if you know what you are doing and you do it right and you can have a great time while doing it in the process!

yeah maybe for group runs in the city for 20 - 30 singles but def not skiing crodie 😂

If you're talking local small event, involve the local shop. Hit up regional reps. It's hard for ski shops to exists but they're still down to support to the extent they can.

If they do, blow them up. Post about them, throw a banner by the dfd on the course. Work with them so they get more than just sending you free product.

My local once made the claim that it cost them 6k to put on this one particular pre-season rail jam

It was kind of hard to believe, it was a very small amount of snow, a few rolls of turf and 3 rails

RparrMy local once made the claim that it cost them 6k to put on this one particular pre-season rail jam

It was kind of hard to believe, it was a very small amount of snow, a few rolls of turf and 3 rails

I mean you could make the math work but prolly heavy on the bullshit local side

RparrMy local once made the claim that it cost them 6k to put on this one particular pre-season rail jam

It was kind of hard to believe, it was a very small amount of snow, a few rolls of turf and 3 rails

Yeah idk about that. I guess if they bought turf and lumber to build drop ins jist for the event. But damn. Also could have just used shitty free carpeting and rink snow or the ice machine

theabortionatorDepends massively on the size of the event, what the event is, and where it happens.

Is it in the normal parks, does it require a special build?

Just diesel and cat time can be a huge cost. Also what is the mtn getting out of it to make it worth while.

Or a contest could be a small rail jam where it's reletively quick and easy to build there for not as expensive.

I've thrown events for nearly $0 before because I built the rails and the setup for free, the mtn was on board, and judges were volunteers.

when does event insurance come into play?

outlawdaffieswhen does event insurance come into play?

I'm not sure but I think it depends on if the event is technically being hosted by the resort or not. Because if it is, then the insurance should be covered since everyone attending has a pass which covers it. For the one rail jam I've hosted, it was never an issue since the rail jam was technically one of the resorts events

Christian_Balenot tryna be snarky but how exactly would you go about making money off a ski event

Im not saying its a ton but whoever is organizing everything should be, and I would argue most likely are, taking a small percentage of the funds from all entry submissions/possibly sponsors that pay to setup a tent, put up signs, etc.

Paying themselves like a few hundred bucks for the time put in to organize and create an event would be super fair (i guess this would all be dependent on size of event). This is also taking into account a rail jam where the park crew would just build it as part of their usual job wage (no paying extra money for some special outsider crew or something, no other mountain staff getting paid additional) I guess the main additional expenses I can think of that away form the prize money are hiring a DJ and an announcer but those aren't crazy high expenses - i think after divvying up pretty fat prize money and sponsor given prizes there is still easily a few hundred bucks most likely to pay the head organizer after still being super generous with prize money