Hi Jonathon! We've used F1 two years in a row for our Easter Egg Hunt, both years running about 5000 people. The first year was a disaster. We didn't have pre-registration, and we had one start time so 5000 people arrived at the same time and bombarded our check-in kiosks. Needless to say, they were not very happy with us!
This last Easter, we did things a little different. We advertised four different check-in times, which really helped with traffic flow. We also handed people forms to fill out as they waited in line to check-in. Once they reached the check-in kiosk, they handed our volunteer the form and the volunteer input their data. At the same time, another volunteer at the kiosk handed each child their goodie bag.
All of these things really helped the check-in process go smoothly, allowing us to have valuable information after the event. Another thing that really helped us was to create an option for Pre-Registration on our website. We had about 400 families decide to pre-register. When they arrived at the event, they were directed to a separate line where everything was ready for them to pick up.