Has anyone ever had a V.B.S. (Vacation Bible School) event that was NOT a success or well attended?

My mother’s first cousin was asking for paper donations for their Vacation Bible School, and to recruit me for help with puppetry (which I was an expert many years ago).

I refused to help with puppetry because of too many irons in the fire—but did agree to help with whatever needed to be done—not expecting her dinky, past-its-prime church to need much. I am willing to help ANY event that benefits children or the community, however.

What surprised me was, there were 60–90 kids every night of the event. Very surprising in a church that has only 5–10 kids on Sunday.

Maybe not as pronounced—but my parents’ church has a fairly healthy childrens’ program with maybe 70–80 active child participants but over 250 in V.B.S.

How church leaders knew to be prepared for such crowds is beyond me. Registration sometimes doesn’t happen until the day of the event. And I’ve never heard of anyone overplanning but I’m sure it does happen.

Why are these events so well attended? And, has anyone ever planned for a crowd that didn’t show?