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Every paid ticket carries a fee. The question is who pays it: your fans, you, or both. It looks like a small setting, but it changes how your price reads on a poster, what you take home from each ticket and how fans feel at checkout. Here is how to choose.

What the booking fee covers

A booking fee pays for selling and delivering the ticket: the ticketing platform, the card payment and the bank costs behind it. With Eventworks it is one fee, 8% of each paid ticket, with every credit card charge, bank fee and VAT already included. There is no setup fee, no monthly fee and no contract, and free tickets are free.

So the fee itself is fixed. What you decide is where it sits. You have three options.

Option 1: pass it on to fans

The fan pays your ticket price plus the fee. On a €30 ticket, the fan pays €32.40 and you receive the full €30.

When it works: when your ticket price is the number you budget around. Every €30 ticket brings in exactly €30, so your forecasts stay simple, and a sell-out means exactly the income you planned.

What to watch: show the fee early. A fan who sees €30 on your poster and €32.40 at checkout feels caught out, even when the fee is fair. Publish the price as “€30 + €2.40 booking fee”, or show the full €32.40 everywhere you mention it.

Option 2: absorb it

The fan pays exactly the price they see, and the fee comes out of your side. On a €30 ticket, the fan pays €30 and you receive €27.60.

When it works: when the price on the poster has to be the price at checkout. That suits family and community events, events for students, and premium or hospitality packages where a clean, all-in price is part of what you are selling.

What to watch: build the fee into your budget from the start. Work backwards from what you need per ticket: if you need to take home €30, divide by 0.92 and price the ticket at about €32.60, or round it to €32.50 or €33.

Option 3: split it

You and your fans share the fee equally. On a €30 ticket, the fan pays €31.20 and you receive €28.80.

When it works: as a middle ground. The extra at checkout is smaller than when you pass the whole fee on, and you give up less per ticket than when you absorb it. It is also a gentle step if your fans are used to all-in prices and you want to move towards showing the fee.

The three options side by side

For a €30 ticket:

Who pays the fee	Fan pays	You receive
Fans (pass it on)	€32.40	€30.00
You (absorb it)	€30.00	€27.60
Split	€31.20	€28.80

Because card charges, bank fees and VAT are inside the 8%, these numbers are the whole story. Nothing else comes off later.

How to choose

Five questions settle it for most events:

1. What do your fans expect? Look at how tickets for similar events near you are priced. If a fee at checkout is normal for your audience, passing it on will not surprise anyone. If the price on the poster is always the price paid, absorbing it avoids friction.
2. Does the price need to be a round number? “€20” is easier to remember and to put on a poster. Pass the fee on and the checkout total becomes €21.60. If a round total matters to you, absorb the fee or set the price so the total lands where you want it.
3. What do you need per ticket? Start from your costs and the income you need, then pick the option that gets you there at a price your fans will accept.
4. Is it a package? VIP tables, hospitality and bundles usually read better as one all-in price.
5. Are some tickets free? Free tickets carry no fee at all, whichever option you choose.

Whatever you choose, be upfront

Fans rarely mind a fair fee. What they mind is a surprise at the last step of checkout. Show the full price, or the price and the fee, on your posters, your social posts and your event page, so the total at checkout is the total they expected.

Getting paid

However the fee is split, the ticket money is yours. Organisers who pass standard KYC checks get it instantly, straight into their own account. If you prefer, we pay you after each event or every week.

Try it with your own numbers

The calculator on our pricing page shows what fans pay and what you receive for any ticket price and number of tickets, with a switch for fans, you or split.

Want to see it on your own event? Book a demo, or get a demo account and try it yourself.

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.