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Most festivals don’t sell steadily. A rush when tickets go on sale, a long quiet middle, then a scramble in the last weeks. Tiered pricing, starting with early bird tickets, evens that out: fans get a reason to buy now, and you get money in early, when deposits and artist fees fall due. Here is how to set your tiers up.

Why tiers work

• Early money. Sales months before the gates open help pay for the stage, the artists and the site long before the weekend.
• A reason to buy today. Every tier that ends is a price rise fans can see coming. “Tier 1 ends on Friday” sells more tickets than “tickets available”.
• An early read on demand. How fast each tier sells tells you whether to add capacity, spend more on marketing, or hold your nerve.

How many tiers

Three or four works for most festivals:

1. Early bird: your lowest price, for your most loyal fans.
2. Tier 1 and Tier 2: the bulk of your sales.
3. Final release: the highest price, for the last tickets and the late deciders.

More tiers mean smaller steps and more moments to announce, but also more to manage and explain. Fewer tiers make each step bigger.

How big each tier should be

Keep the early bird small enough to sell out quickly. A sold-out tier is news: it is your first announcement, and it tells everyone who waited that prices only go up from here. Put most of your capacity in the middle tiers, and keep a final release for the end.

Here is a worked example for a 5,000-capacity festival:

Tier	Tickets	Price
Early bird	500	€45
Tier 1	1,500	€55
Tier 2	2,000	€65
Final release	1,000	€75

Sold out, that is €310,000 in ticket sales, with the average ticket at €62.

How far apart to price

Make each step big enough to matter and small enough not to put people off. In the example above, each tier is €10 more than the last: enough to make “buy before Friday” worth listening to, without making a later ticket feel like a penalty. Look at your own audience and your final price, and work back from there.

When to move on: a sell-out or a date

A tier can end in two ways:

• When it sells out. Simple and honest: once the allocation is gone, the next tier is the price.
• On a date. Useful to create a deadline, for example the day you announce your headliner.

Many festivals use both: a tier ends on its date, or earlier if it sells out first.

With Eventworks, you set up each tier as its own ticket type with its own number of tickets, and schedule each on-sale to the minute. Fans who miss a tier can join the waiting list, so you have everyone ready for the next release.

Avoid the flat middle

The weeks between the early bird and the final release are where festivals stall. Plan something for every tier change:

• Line-up news: time each announcement with a tier ending, so the news and the deadline land together.
• Email your attendees: past and current ticket holders are the fans most likely to buy again. Email them straight from the dashboard when a tier is about to end.
• Promoters: give each promoter their own link, with commission per event or ticket type, and see who is selling.
• Codes: coupons for partners, sponsors and early fans.
• Ads that measure: add your Meta pixel and Google Tag Manager to your shop, so you can see which campaigns sell tickets.

Other ticket types worth adding

• Day tickets alongside the full weekend, for fans who can only make one day.
• Group tickets for friends buying together.
• VIP with its own entrance, viewing area or extras.
• Add-ons at checkout: camping, parking, merch or a festival cup.

Who pays the fee on an early bird?

Your early bird price is your headline number, so think about how it reads. With Eventworks there is one fee, 8% of each paid ticket with every card charge, bank fee and VAT included, and you choose who pays it: pass it to fans, absorb it or split it. Absorbing it on the early bird keeps that headline price clean. We explain the three options in Booking fees: who should pay, fans or you?

Watch sales as they happen

The live dashboard shows sales for every ticket type as they happen, and reports break sales down by ticket type and reseller. If a tier sells out in hours, you know you have room to move prices up. If it stalls, you know it is time for your next announcement.

See how festivals and club nights run on Eventworks on our festivals and nightlife page, or book a demo and we’ll set up your tiers with you.

Before the first song, speech or game, fans meet your door. A quick, calm entry sets the mood for the whole night; a long queue in the cold does the opposite, and a crush at the gate is a safety problem. Here is how to plan check-in so everyone gets in quickly and safely.

Plan for the peak, not the average

Fans don’t arrive evenly. Most turn up in a short window: when doors open, just before the headliner or right before the start. So work out your busiest minute, not your average one.

The numbers from a real show make the point. When 40,000 fans came to see Pitbull at Ta’ Qali, scanning averaged 207 scans a minute across the site, and the busiest single minute admitted 838 people: four times the average. Entry that copes with the average will still queue at the peak.

To size your entrances:

1. Estimate your peak arrivals per minute. Past events, the timings on your tickets and when your public transport arrives all help.
2. Time one lane. At a smaller event or a rehearsal, count how many fans one steward scans in a minute, with phones out and bags checked.
3. Divide, then add a spare. Peak arrivals divided by one lane’s speed gives the lanes you need. Add at least one spare for a problem ticket or a steward’s break.

Scan on phones your team already has

Entry doesn’t need special hardware. With Eventworks, every steward installs the Eventworks scanner app on a phone and scans tickets, passes and access cards straight away. For your busiest entrances, dedicated laser scanners are available to rent, and venues with turnstiles can connect entry to their gates, so tickets and access cards open the turnstiles.

Keep scanning when the Wi-Fi drops

A big crowd can overload the mobile network just when you need it most. Make sure your scanning doesn’t depend on it.

Eventworks scanning works offline. Each ticket is checked on the phone itself, and everything syncs when the connection comes back. Tickets aren’t preloaded onto the devices, so a ticket bought an hour before doors still opens the door.

Stop copied tickets at the gate

A screenshot of a ticket looks exactly like the real thing. What matters is that it can only get in once. Each Eventworks ticket is refused if it has already been scanned, and every scan is on record with the reason a ticket was refused: already in, wrong day or not valid. Your stewards see the answer in a fraction of a second and can send the fan to the help point instead of arguing at the lane.

Brief the people on the door

Your stewards are the face of your event. Before doors:

• Give everyone the right access. Door Manager and Scanner roles show staff only what they need.
• Explain what each result means. Valid, already in, wrong day: and what to do for each.
• Set up a help point. Fans who can’t find their ticket shouldn’t hold up a lane. Someone with access to orders at the help point can find the order and resend the ticket by email or WhatsApp.
• Test every device days before. Log in, scan a test ticket and check the result on every phone, with time to swap any that don’t work.
• Bring power. Charged phones and a power bank per lane.

Handle guests and walk-ups without clipboards

Guest lists and door sales are where queues often start.

• Guest lists: add guests one by one or import a spreadsheet, then check them in like any other ticket. No printed list, no crossing out names.
• Box office: sell at the door from the same ticket stock as your online shop, cash or card, so you never sell a place twice.

Watch arrivals live and move your team

Live check-in shows arrivals by ticket type and show as they happen. If one entrance backs up while another is quiet, you see it in time to move stewards or open another lane.

At the Pitbull show, the live numbers gave the organisers, the performers’ team and the safety officers a headcount for every area of the venue at once, and the crew opened extra lanes and moved queuing barriers whenever a zone filled faster than planned. Read the full story.

Your door checklist

• Estimate your peak arrivals per minute.
• Time one lane, then plan lanes for the peak, plus a spare.
• Install the scanner app and give each steward the right role.
• Test every device days before the event.
• Charge phones and bring power banks.
• Import your guest lists.
• Set up box office sales on the same stock.
• Brief stewards on each scan result and the help point.
• Open doors early enough for the peak.
• Watch arrivals live and move your team as queues build.

See everything the door can do on our entry page, or book a demo and we’ll walk through the entry plan for your next event.