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A checklist for a small festival's ticketing in the 12 weeks before doors

What to set up, sell, scan and reconcile in the last twelve weeks.

By NightHall · Published 2026-10-14 · 7 min read · planning, event-day

Twelve weeks before doors is when a small festival is still plannable and already real. The site, the tickets and the money each need one decision a week. This checklist runs all three tracks from week twelve to the morning after, with the numbers a 5,000-capacity festival would use.

Weeks twelve to ten: the event and the money

Publish the event page with the organizer's name, address, phone and email before any purchase binds. A coming soon page with on-sale alerts captures demand before anything is on sale. Open pre-registration so the presale has an audience on day one.

Connect the organizer's own Stripe account now, not later. Check the payout schedule on the Money page before the first sale. Write the selling cost into the EUR 200,000 budget the way the reference festival does: platform fee EUR 0.20 per paid ticket on Pay as you go, Stripe iDEAL EUR 0.29 per order, 21 percent VAT on the platform fee.

Set the refund and resale position in the terms before tickets sell. The checkout states the resale position before the buyer pays. Past the 180-day iDEAL window the fallback is credit with the buyer's consent or a recorded out-of-band payment. A festival with a long lead time writes that down in week twelve, not at the first refund request.

Weeks nine to seven: tiers, presale, access

Build the price tiers. Early bird for followers, regular for the main onsale, final for the last weeks. Each tier carries a quantity, and the shop moves buyers through them in order. Presale windows admit early buyers first: pre-registration, access codes for channels, eligibility rules, and the waitlist for what sells out.

Set the service fee and show it inside the first all-in price. Dutch admission carries 9 percent VAT; confirm the rate with a tax adviser where the programme mixes live performance with club programming. The organizer completes a VAT field per product.

Invite the team with roles. The event manager builds, finance reads the money, the door lead gets the gates. Up to 5 team members on Pay as you go, unlimited on Flat rate. Brief the door lead on the scanner, the printed door list and re-entry before the night, not during it.

Weeks six to four: the main onsale

The main onsale runs on the regular tier. Watch three numbers daily: tickets per day, orders per day, and the average basket. At 2.5 tickets per order a 5,000-capacity festival means about 2,000 orders. That is about EUR 580 in iDEAL fees and EUR 1,000 in platform fees on Pay as you go.

Run the box-office channel for the record shop and the partners that sell to their own lists. Each channel carries its own terms, and the organizer reads which one sold. Publish the guest-list closing time to everyone who holds list places.

Send the practical mail four weeks out. Name gates, times, age checks under NIX18, and what the ticket includes. Point anyone who cannot come at the resale queue. Tickets deliver with wallet passes, and transfers change the holder name before the night.

Weeks three to one: the door and the money

Print the door list per gate. Charge the scanners and pack one spare device per gate with chargers. Set re-entry before doors and print it on the ticket. Close the guest list at the stated time.

Confirm the payout dates against supplier bills. Money reaches the organizer's own bank within days on the standard schedule, with no hold. Read the event money with the orders behind it before the money lands, so the Monday reconciliation starts from the record rather than from memory.

Prepare the change path. The April event in the reference cast is moved to May and then cancelled. Every buyer has to be told, offered something and answered. The money has to go back the way it came. Refund or carry-over in one flow, decided now, not improvised then.

The night and the morning after

On the night the scanner asks about every code, the printed list covers the outage, and the door lead decides the duplicates. Every scan lands on the fan record with its gate and time.

The morning after, close the night against the budget and export the ledger. Follow up with surveys, reviews and no-show re-engagement while the night is fresh. A buyer who hands a ticket back is refunded on their own charge after the replacement sale settles. The freed place sells again at the organizer's own price. The next presale opens first to the fans scanned in that night.

Count the season, not only the night

A festival that sells 5,000 tickets at EUR 45 with a EUR 5 fee reads EUR 250,000 in buyer payments. On Pay as you go the platform fee is EUR 1,000 and iDEAL on about 2,000 orders adds about EUR 580. The selling cost is about 0.6 percent of turnover. That ratio belongs in the budget next to the production lines, because it is the one cost the organizer controls after the lineup is signed.

What NightHall runs across the twelve weeks

Plan holds the event, the venue, the budget, the tasks and the run sheet. Sell is the webshop, checkout with iDEAL and cards, sales channels and the box office. The door runs the scanner, the gates, guest lists and the printed list. Money shows event money, profit and loss, payouts and the accounting export. Post-event follows up with surveys, the return queue and reviews.

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