---
title: "Festival Trader Applications, Onboarding and Directory"
description: "Take trader applications with your fees, let Fai rank them, approve with the invoice ready, and get every trader paid, certified and booked in for load-in."
canonical: "https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets/trader-applications-and-readiness"
---

# Festival Trader Applications, Onboarding and Directory

1. [Event Operating System](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system)
2. [Traders & markets](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets)
3. Applications & load-in

# Choose the Right Traders and Get Every One Ready for Load-In

A good food court or market depends on the mix, and the weeks before it depend on chasing. Picking traders from a pile of emails takes days, and then come the insurance certificates, signed terms, unpaid pitch fees and arrival times. With Ticket Fairy, traders apply on your own page with your fees and tax shown up front, Fai ranks every application against the mix you describe, and approving a trader sends their email, their invoice and their own trader page. From that page each trader accepts your terms, pays, books a load-in time, names their staff, uploads certificates and enters their listing for the directory on your website. You see who still owes what, and Fai drafts the reminders.

  [Book a Live Demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo)

- Every application ranked against the mix you want
- Terms, payment and certificates in before load-in
- A trader directory on your website that follows your line-up

   ![Ticket Fairy public trader application page for a harbour festival, with the business, what they sell, the pitch, power, water and photos](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders--application-page.png)

## Open an Application Page That Asks for Everything You Need

Your application page is ready as soon as you enter a welcome, the mix of traders you want and the certificates every trader must upload. It already asks for the business, the contact, what they sell, the pitch they want, their power and water and their photos, and you add your own questions for anything else. Traders apply from a phone with no account, under your own brand, until the closing date you set.

The mix you describe is more than a welcome message. It is what Fai ranks applications against, so a line such as "two coffee traders, plenty of vegan food and one oyster bar" turns into a reading on every application. Asking for food hygiene, gas safety or public liability insurance on the application means the paperwork question is settled before you spend time on a trader.

Applicants can also come through a form you already use. A form on the event can add each person who sends it to your traders as a new application, so a trader who found your general enquiry form is not lost.

- **Application page**: your welcome, your mix and your own questions
- **Certificates asked up front**: such as food hygiene, gas safety or public liability insurance
- **Closing date**: applications stop on the day you choose

- [Take food, drink and market trader applications for your event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/take-trader-applications-for-your-event)
- [Add everyone who sends your event form to your volunteers, traders or crew](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/add-form-applicants-to-your-event-teams)

   ![Ticket Fairy Set up traders panel on the Application page part, with the welcome text, the mix you want, the certificates every trader must upload and your own questions](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders--set-up-application-page.png)

## Show Your Pitch Fees, Extras and Tax Before Anyone Applies

Traders apply knowing what it costs, so you spend no time on applicants who would walk away at the invoice. Add a pitch fee for each pitch size and an extra for power, water, passes or parking, and traders choose from them on the application page in your event's currency. Choose whether trader invoices carry the same tax as your tickets, no tax or a rate you pick.

A pitch fee can do more than charge a flat price. It can take a share of the trader's sales with a minimum and a maximum, ask for a deposit when you approve the trader and include the staff passes the pitch comes with. A trader who needs more crew on the stall buys an extra for the additional passes, and the trader page holds them to that number when they name their staff.

- **Pitch fees**: one for each pitch size, with an optional deposit
- **Extras**: power, water, passes and parking, priced on their own
- **Share of sales**: a percentage with your minimum and maximum
- **Tax on trader fees**: same as your tickets, no tax or a rate you choose

- [Lay Out Every Pitch by Your Rules and Invoice Your Share of Sales](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets/trader-pitches-and-takings)

   ![Ticket Fairy Set up traders panel on the Fees part, with pitch fees, extras and the choice of how trader invoices are taxed](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders--set-up-fees.png)

## Let Fai Rank Every Application Against Your Mix

Fai reads each application against the mix you asked for and the traders you have already approved. She marks each one Strong fit, Possible fit or Weak fit with her plain reasons, such as adding the vegan food your mix asks for or being the third coffee trader. Sort by Best fit first and the strongest applications sit at the top, while you open any trader to see their answers, photos and pitch and make the call yourself.

Because Fai also weighs the traders you have already approved, her reading changes as your line-up fills. An application that was a strong fit last week can become a weak fit once you approve two traders selling the same thing, and the reason says so. She treats what applicants enter as information only, never as instructions, so a trader cannot talk their way up the list.

- **Strong, Possible or Weak fit**: a reading for every application
- **Plain reasons**: what each trader adds and what it repeats
- **Best fit first**: the strongest applications at the top of the list

    ![Ticket Fairy trader panel for a barbecue trader with Approve, Waiting list and Decline, Fai's reading, the pitch and fees, paperwork and history](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders--trader.png)

## Approve a Trader and Send Their Invoice in the Same Step

Choose the pitch, the pitch fee and the extras a trader needs, then approve them, put them on the [waiting list](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/event-waiting-list) or decline them. The dialog shows the email and the invoice before anything goes. Approving raises the invoice from your fees, or the deposit when the pitch has one, with a link to pay by card, and the trader gets their own page for terms, load-in and certificates.

Traders pay on your event's own payment account, and the Invoices view shows when each invoice is paid. Traders you already know need no application: add them as already agreed and they get the same trader page and invoice. If you change your mind, a declined trader can still be approved or moved to the waiting list.

For a weekly, monthly or Christmas market, one application page can cover your other market dates. The trader chooses the dates they want, each date becomes its own application on that date's event, and you decide every date on its own with an email for each decision. A trader who cannot make a date says so on their page, which frees their pitch for someone else.

- **Approve, waiting list or decline**: with the email you set up for each
- **Invoice on approval**: from the pitch fee and extras, paid by card
- **Market dates**: one application across your upcoming dates
- **Traders you already know**: added as already agreed, with no application

    ![Ticket Fairy Approve dialog for a barbecue trader listing the email that goes to the trader with a link to their trader page and the invoice to pay by card](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders--approve.png)

## Give Each Trader Their Own Page for Everything They Owe You

Each approved trader opens their page from the email with no password. It shows their pitch on a map, their fees with Pay invoice, your trading terms, the load-in times to book, vehicle passes, the certificates you need, their menu or products and the staff working on the stall. The page changes as you update the trader, so nobody works from an old email.

Enter or paste your trading terms once and every trader accepts them on their page. Ticket Fairy keeps the time, their name and the exact words they accepted, and when you change the terms every trader accepts the new version. The wording of your approved, waiting list and declined emails sits beside the terms, so each one sounds like you.

The trader panel tells you when a link works until and when the trader last opened their page. Stop a link whenever you need to, and send a fresh one when a trader asks. A trader that is also one of your outside teams can be linked to it, so their vehicle passes and arrival windows come with the trader page and need no second link.

- **Trader page**: pitch, invoice, terms, load-in, certificates and staff
- **Trading terms**: who accepted, when and the exact words they saw
- **Staff on the stall**: named by the trader, within the passes their pitch includes
- **Last opened**: see when each trader last looked at their page

- [Get your traders ready for show day](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/get-your-traders-ready-for-show-day)

   ![Ticket Fairy trader page for a barbecue trader, with their pitch on a map, their market dates, vehicle passes, directory listing and takings](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders-finished--trader-page.png)

## Spread Load-In Across Your Gates and Hours

A site where every van arrives at eight o'clock is a site with a queue at the gate. Add load-in times with a start, an end, the gate or area and how many traders each time takes, and approved traders book a time on their page and see how full each one is. They book each vehicle into an arrival time and show the gate code when they arrive.

Every load-in time appears on the run of show for its day, with the traders booked into it and the vehicles coming, so your gate and site crews plan from the same timeline as the stages. A trader you cancel or decline frees their place for someone else. The Pitches view lists every trading trader with their pitch, the power they need and whether they need water, ready for your site crew.

- **Load-in times**: by gate or area, with the traders each one takes
- **Vehicle passes**: each van booked into an arrival time with a gate code
- **On the run of show**: times, traders and vehicles for each day

- [Plan Every Cue, Call the Show Live and Keep Every Team on the Same Time](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/show-day/run-of-show-and-show-calling)

   ![Ticket Fairy Set up traders panel on Load-in, listing load-in times by gate with how many traders are booked on each](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders--set-up-load-in.png)

## Know Every Certificate Is Valid and Chase Only What Is Missing

Traders upload the certificates you ask for, such as food hygiene, gas safety, PAT testing, an alcohol licence or public liability insurance, and Fai reads the expiry date from each file. You confirm the date or change it, and a certificate that runs out before your event ends shows as expiring. Each trader in your list shows how many things are left to chase, or Paperwork in when they are done.

One button emails a trader exactly what is still missing, with a fresh link to their page. In the weeks before the event, Fai looks for missing or expiring certificates, unaccepted terms, unbooked load-in times and unpaid invoices, and puts a reminder for each trader on the event's Today page for you to approve. Nothing is sent until a person on your team says yes.

Every trader certificate is also kept in Licences and certificates with the rest of the event's paperwork. Opening a certificate is recorded, and only the people who run the event can open them.

- **Read by Fai**: expiry dates taken from each certificate, for you to confirm
- **Expiring certificates**: flagged when they end before your event does
- **Remind about what is missing**: one email listing only the gaps
- **Reminders from Fai**: suggested on Today for you to approve

- [Start Every Day Knowing What Needs You and Who Is Doing What](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/planning/event-today-and-tasks)

   ![Ticket Fairy trader panel for an approved trader on pitch F12, with the paid invoice, the trading terms accepted, a load-in time booked and an insurance certificate still missing](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders--approved-trader.png)

## Show Visitors Who Is Selling What on Your Own Website

Festival and market goers want to know where the vegan street food and the coffee roaster are before they set off. Each approved trader enters their own listing on their trader page, started from their application, with what they sell, the words people filter by, such as Vegan or Gluten free, and their Instagram name. You check every listing before the public sees it, then the directory goes on your website with filters.

New listings wait under Listings to review, showing exactly what the public will see. Change any field and publish, or ask the trader for changes with a note they read by email and on their page. When a trader changes a published listing, visitors keep seeing the version you published until you publish the change, and each listing keeps the history of who did what.

Choose cards or a list, add a few lines of your own at the top, such as where the food court is, and choose whether each trader's pitch shows so visitors can walk straight to the stall. Paste the embed code into your website once and every trader you publish appears there. Cancel or decline a trader and their listing leaves the directory at once, and contact names, emails and phone numbers never reach the public page.

- **Listing on the trader page**: entered by the trader, checked by you
- **Filters**: by kind of trader and by the words traders added
- **Embed code**: pasted once, then every published trader appears
- **No contact details**: names, emails and phones stay private

- [Show your traders in a directory on your website](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/show-your-traders-in-a-directory-on-your-website)

   ![Ticket Fairy listing for a barbecue trader waiting for review, with the name, what they sell, the kind of trader, the words people filter by, the website and Instagram, and the history](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders-finished--listing.png)

## How Organisers Fill Their Sites With Ticket Fairy

- ### A Street Food Festival

  The organiser asks for plenty of vegan food and no more than two coffee traders, and gets two hundred applications. Fai's Best fit first order puts the strongest at the top, the team approves forty in an afternoon, and every approved trader has their invoice before the evening.
- ### A Christmas Market Season

  One application page covers every weekend in December. Traders pick their weekends, the team decides each date on its own, and a trader who drops a weekend frees the pitch for the waiting list from their own page.
- ### A Weekend Festival With Gas Cooking

  Gas safety and public liability insurance are required on the application. Fai flags two insurance certificates that run out on the Saturday, and her reminders go out a month before load-in, so both traders arrive with new cover.
- ### A County Show

  Load-in times run by gate across the morning, and each trader books their van into a time. The gate team sees every arrival on the run of show and checks gate codes, so the showground opens with the stalls ready.
- ### A Food and Drink Festival Website

  Traders enter their own listings with Vegan, Gluten free and Coffee as filter words. The team checks and publishes them, and visitors plan their day on the festival website with every stall's pitch shown.

    [Book Demo Call](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo) [Get Started for Free](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/registration)

## See It in Your Dashboard

- ![Ticket Fairy Market dates setting, with the November, December and January dates of a monthly market to tick](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders-finished--market-dates.png) Let one application cover every date of a market season.
- ![Ticket Fairy Set up traders panel on Terms and emails, with the trading terms and the wording of the approved, waiting list and declined emails](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders--set-up-terms.png) Enter your trading terms once, and every trader accepts them on their own page.
- ![Ticket Fairy trader load-in on the run of show, with each load-in time, how many traders are booked, their names and the vehicles coming](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders-finished--load-in-on-the-run-of-show.png) Your gate and site crews see every trader load-in on the run of show.
- ![Ticket Fairy directory settings, with cards or list, the introduction at the top and whether each trader's pitch shows](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders-finished--directory-settings.png) Make the directory look right for your event, with each trader's pitch shown.
- ![Ticket Fairy dialog to ask a barbecue trader to change their listing, with what the trader should change and the switch to email them](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders-finished--ask-for-changes.png) Ask a trader to change their listing before it goes public.

## Set It Up Step by Step

- [Take food, drink and market trader applications for your event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/take-trader-applications-for-your-event)
- [Get your traders ready for show day](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/get-your-traders-ready-for-show-day)
- [Show your traders in a directory on your website](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/show-your-traders-in-a-directory-on-your-website)
- [Add everyone who sends your event form to your volunteers, traders or crew](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/add-form-applicants-to-your-event-teams)
- [Send event document packs to your performers, traders and crew](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/send-document-packs-to-your-performers-traders-and-crew)

## Questions About Trader Applications and Load-In

### Applications & load-in

#### Does Fai approve or decline traders?

No. Fai ranks the applications and gives up to three reasons for each, and your team approves, puts on the waiting list or declines every one. Fai can make a decision for you only when you ask her, and she shows you the email and invoice first and waits for your yes.

#### Who can set up the page and decide applications?

The event's owners, admins and producers, from Traders on the event's Operations page. Other roles on the event can read the list through Fai or the Ticket Fairy CLI.

#### Does every kind of event show Traders?

A food and drink festival shows Traders from the start, and calls its Artists section Vendors and its stages Booths. On any other event, open Traders from More sections on the Operations page.

#### Why did an approval raise no invoice?

The trader had no pitch fee chosen. Choose one in their panel, then raise the invoice from there. Card payments must be working on the event for traders to pay by card, and each invoice is due 14 days after it is sent.

#### Can a trader apply twice or add lots of photos?

A second application from the same email address on the same event is refused, and the trader is told you will be in touch. Each application takes up to 5 photos, each a JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC file smaller than 10 MB.

#### How many dates can one market application cover?

Up to 53 market dates, so a weekly market can take a whole year of applications from one page.

#### Which certificate files can a trader upload?

A PDF, a photo or a Word file up to 25 MB, with up to 20 certificates for each trader. Each file opens through a link that lasts five minutes, and every opening is recorded. Leave the expiry date empty and Fai reads it from the file, marked Read by Fai until you confirm it.

#### When does Fai start suggesting reminders?

From 45 days before the event, for each trader who is trading and still owes something. A trader who was sent their link in the last 3 days is not chased again yet.

#### What happens to a trader's listing when I cancel them?

It leaves the public directory at once and comes back if you approve them again. A listing holds a name, what they sell, the kind of trader, up to 6 filter words, a website and an Instagram name, and the directory shows 24 traders at a time.

#### Can I remove a load-in time that traders have booked?

Not until you move the traders booked into it. A time with no bookings can be removed at any time, and an approved trader you cancel frees their load-in place with no email sent.

## Explore More of the Event Operating System

- [Pitches & takings Place traders on your site map by rules you enter in plain words, share a live power sheet, check trader takings with Fai and invoice your share of sales. Traders & markets](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets/trader-pitches-and-takings)
- [Site map & deliveries Draw your site to scale, let Fai check the safety essentials, publish an attendee map, share a live map with responders, and book every delivery into an arrival time at the gate. Site & logistics](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/site-and-logistics/site-map-and-deliveries)
- [Contracts & e-signature Contracts started from your deals and signed by email with no account, risky clauses flagged, agent paperwork checked against your offer, contracts sent in bulk and welcome packs for everyone. Contracts & payments](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/contracts-and-payments/contracts-and-e-signature)
- [Run of show Build the run of show from Fai's draft, catch clashes and late finishes, call every cue live, catch a late stage up in one step and give every team its own day sheet, backstage TV and calendar. Show day](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/show-day/run-of-show-and-show-calling)

       [Back to **Traders & markets**](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets) [Next **Pitches & takings**](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets/trader-pitches-and-takings)

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---

This page is on Ticket Fairy, a ticketing, marketing and operations platform for live events and the venues that host them: festivals, club nights, concerts, conferences and tours, and night clubs, beach clubs and concert venues. It grows revenue with fan rewards that turn an audience into a sales channel, and runs the money side with payments and payouts, Vault business banking, and working capital advanced against ticket sales. [How Ticket Fairy ticketing works](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing) · [Ticket Fairy for AI assistants](https://www.ticketfairy.com/llms.txt)