# How do you keep a high-demand on-sale running smoothly? | Ticket Fairy Guides 1. [Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/) 2. [Guides](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides) 3. How do you keep a high-demand on-sale running smoothly? Solving event ticketing problems # How do you keep a high-demand on-sale running smoothly? Use the waiting room to control entry to checkout, stagger ticket releases to spread demand and collect a waiting list for later releases. For: Putting a high-demand event on sale Takes: 6 minutes Use the waiting room to control how quickly buyers enter checkout, split tickets into timed releases and give people who miss out a waiting list. You can also invite selected buyers or pre-registered customers before the public on-sale to reduce the opening rush. The waiting room activates during high demand and releases buyers into Ticket Fairy at a managed rate. Buyers see their place in the queue and roughly how long they have to wait, while checkout capacity stays protected. Sell your tickets in releases and one rush becomes several smaller ones. Invite your own list or open pre-registration, then let those people buy first, and you sell part of the event before the public on-sale. Anyone who arrives after the last ticket has gone can join your waiting list, which gives you somebody to message when you add a release. ## How Ticket Fairy handles it - ### A waiting room in front of the checkout It activates during high demand, gives each buyer a visible place in line and releases people at a rate that protects checkout capacity. - ### [Staggered ticket releases](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/schedule-when-your-event-goes-live) Each release is its own batch, at its own price, opening at its own moment. Sell in tiers and one crowd becomes several smaller ones, and the people who miss the first release have something to come back for. - ### Invitations before the public on-sale Invite selected buyers or pre-registered customers to buy early, which reduces demand during the public on-sale. - ### [A waiting list, and a way back to it](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/ticketing-platform-marketing-tools) People who arrive after the tickets have gone can join your waiting list. Message them when you add a release, or when tickets come back through resale. ## How to set it up - [Schedule your on-sale rather than publishing by hand](#step-1) - [Split your tickets into releases](#step-2) - [Move part of the crowd earlier](#step-3) - [Tell people what to expect](#step-4) - [Come back to the people who missed out](#step-5) ## What you need before you start - You're an owner or an admin on the event. - You know the on-sale time and have an estimate of expected demand. Use that estimate to decide how many releases to prepare. 1. ## Schedule your on-sale rather than publishing by hand Schedule the publish date and time so the event opens at the time you announced. Publishing manually depends on somebody being available to select **Publish** at that moment. ![The Schedule Publish dialog, with the date and time the event goes live and the Send Promoter Links checkbox under it](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-publish--schedule-publish-dialog.png) Publish, Payment/Support, Schedule Publish. 2. ## Split your tickets into releases Give each release its own allocation and its own moment. Set the later ones to appear when the one before sells out or at a set time, whichever comes first. Two releases turn one rush into two smaller ones. They also give the people who missed the first one something to come back for instead of a sold-out page. 3. ## Move part of the crowd earlier Send invitations to your own list, or open pre-registration. The people most likely to buy are then not queuing with everybody else on the day. ![Ticket Fairy Invitations page with invited guests, ticket types and invitation statuses](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-invitations--recipients.png) Event, Invitations. 4. ## Tell people what to expect Say in your announcement that there is a queue, that it shows their place, and that refreshing will not move them up it. Buyers who were not told about a queue often decide the site has broken. 5. ## Come back to the people who missed out After the on-sale, message waiting-list members when you add a release, and contact buyers with abandoned baskets while their checkout is still relevant. ## Questions you might have Is there a queue for a busy on-sale?: Yes. A waiting room sits in front of the platform and turns itself on when arrivals climb. Your buyers see their place and roughly how long they have to wait, and it moves them through in turn. Do I have to turn the waiting room on?: No. It is in front of every on-sale and only comes on when the traffic needs it, so there is nothing to switch on and nothing to forget. How does the waiting room protect checkout?: It limits how quickly buyers enter checkout during a spike, leaving payment and order pages responsive for the buyers already there. Does refreshing the page move somebody up the queue?: No. Their place is preserved while they wait, so refreshing does not move them forward. What happens to the people who do not get a ticket?: They can join your waiting list. Message them when you add a release, or when tickets come back through resale. ## Where to go from here - [What else you can do with Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/features) - [Schedule when your event goes live](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/schedule-when-your-event-goes-live) - [What marketing tools should a ticketing platform give you?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/ticketing-platform-marketing-tools) - [Set up ticketing for a multi-day festival](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/sell-a-multi-day-festival) - [How do you manage many events without repeating the same work?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/run-many-events-on-one-platform) - [What should you compare when choosing a ticketing platform?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/compare-ticketing-platforms) - [How do you answer a custom ticket sales question?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/answer-custom-ticket-sales-questions) - [What is social ticketing, and how do referral rewards work?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/social-ticketing-and-referral-rewards) - [How do you manage backstage access passes for an event?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/manage-backstage-access-passes) - [How do you manage event accreditation with your tickets?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/manage-event-accreditation) - [How do you manage tickets for a multi-day event?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/manage-tickets-for-a-multi-day-event) - [How do you let buyers pay for tickets in instalments?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/let-buyers-pay-for-tickets-in-instalments) - [Can you sell tickets directly from your own website?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/sell-tickets-on-your-own-website) - [Can ticket buyers join your email list automatically?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/add-ticket-buyers-to-your-email-list) - [How can fan club members get presale access?](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/give-fan-club-members-presale-access) - [Every Ticket Fairy guide](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides) ## Do this on your own event Create your account, build your event and follow the steps in your own dashboard. You do not need to book a sales call. [Create a free account](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/welcome) [Book a demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo) --- 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) ยท [Ticket Fairy for AI assistants](https://www.ticketfairy.com/llms.txt)