Every September, Plant Paradise in Moreletapark, Pretoria East, runs its Spring Festival. We have been the face painters there for three years now, set up next to the coffee shop while the rest of the nursery gets on with the day.
What is actually on at the festival
It is a busy, community-feeling event. The nursery puts on discounted plant prices and prize giveaways through the day. This year there was a live saxophonist working through the crowd, and a local radio station broadcasting from a stand, interviewing the Plant Paradise staff between songs. Visitors wander in, browse, sit for coffee, let their kids loose on the play area, and then come back to look at plants again.
Why the kids' play area is the perfect spot to set up
Plant Paradise has a coffee shop with a children's play area attached. It is the natural home for the face painter and the balloon sculptor. Parents settle in for a coffee, the kids spot us from inside, and the queue starts forming.
The designs are quick and crowd-pleasing — butterflies, superheroes, tigers, a few cats and dogs for the smaller ones. Our balloon sculptor works the queue at the same time, producing animals, swords, and the occasional very ambitious request. There is a particular look a six-year-old gives you when she has just specified a purple unicorn with rainbow wings and is waiting to see what she gets. The balloon sculptor is used to it.
When the staff get painted too
One of the things I enjoy about Plant Paradise is that the staff get into it. Several of the team have ended up with face paint over the years — leopard prints, butterflies, flowers across the cheek. It changes the feel of the day in a small but real way. The customers see a staff member with a painted face, and the festival atmosphere is suddenly that bit more present.
Why community events like this matter
Most of my work is birthday parties and private bookings. Community events are different — bigger crowds, less control over the schedule, more variation in who is coming up to the table. The thing I value about events like the Plant Paradise festival is that the people you paint are the people from the neighbourhood, and you see the same families again at next year's edition.
Planning a community event in Pretoria?
If you are running a school festival, estate fun day, market, or any kind of community event in Pretoria East or the surrounding suburbs, get in touch and tell me about it. We can talk about face painting alone or face painting plus balloons depending on what fits.
From the event
