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Open your ticket on-sale

The morning tickets go on sale is the one hour of an event's life that cannot be repeated, and most of what decides how it goes was set days earlier. Promoters who run a calm on-sale check the same handful of things first, announce once, then watch the opening minutes with the reports that show a problem while there is still time to fix it.

Run the checks that matter on the morning of an on-sale, put the event live at the time you announced, and watch the first hour closely enough to act on it.

For
Putting an announced event on sale at a set time
Takes
10 minutes

Before you start

  • The event is finished and in draft, with every ticket type, price, allocation and sale window set. This is the run-through, not the build.
  • Your payment account is connected and taking money, because an on-sale that cannot charge sells nothing.
  • You know the exact minute you told people tickets open, and who is watching the first hour with you.

  1. Check the ticket types one last time

    Open the event and read every ticket type: price, how many, when it opens and when it closes.

    Note: A ticket type with no allocation sells until you stop it, and one whose sale window opens tomorrow will not appear today. These two mistakes cost the most and take a minute to rule out.

  2. Add a hidden ticket to test with

    Add one cheap ticket type that is on sale now and hidden behind an access code.

    Note: Your real ticket types cannot be bought before their window opens, and putting one on sale early would sell to whoever finds the page. A hidden ticket is only reachable by a buyer holding the code, so the test stays yours.

  3. Buy the hidden ticket on the live event page

    Publish the event, enter your access code and buy that ticket yourself, end to end, on a phone.

    Note: This is the only check that covers the whole path: the page, the checkout, the card charge and the confirmation email. Refund your own order afterwards.

  4. Close the test ticket type

    Set the hidden ticket type to nothing on sale once your own order is refunded.

    Note: A ticket type that has taken an order cannot be deleted, and your test order counts. Closed and hidden, it sells nothing and stays out of the way.

  5. Take the event back down

    Unpublish the event.

    Note: A live event cannot be scheduled: its publish button takes it down instead, and the scheduled on-sale only picks up events that are already down.

  6. Set the on-sale time

    Open the publish dialog and select Schedule Publish to open the event at the minute you announced.

    Note: A scheduled publish opens the event whether or not your team is at a keyboard. Choose the timezone you announced in, not the one you are sitting in.

    Ticket Fairy publish dialog with the choice to publish now or schedule the event to go live at a set date and time
    The publish dialog, set to a scheduled on-sale.

  7. Tell your audience it is open

    Send the announcement to your buyer list at the moment the event goes live, not before it.

    Note: An email that lands before the page can sell sends people to a closed door, and they rarely come back the same day.

  8. Watch the first hour

    Keep Performance open and check it every few minutes for the first hour.

    Note: You are looking for two things: a ticket type selling far faster than the rest, and no sales at all. The first tells you what to release next, the second means something is broken.

    Ticket Fairy sales summary showing tickets sold, revenue and orders for an event
    The sales summary, during an on-sale.

Or have it done for you

Fai can read the event back to you before you open it, publish it once you approve, and report the sales as they come in. The CLI publishes and reads the same event without opening the dashboard.

In your dashboard, with Fai

Before I open <EVENT NAME> for sale, list its ticket types with prices, allocations and sale windows, and tell me anything that looks wrong

From your own assistant, over MCP

Connect your assistant to our MCP server and ask it:

Keep --read-only in your MCP configuration. This task only reads data, so your assistant does not need tools that make changes.

Pick the brand, find the event <EVENT NAME> and show its ticket types and sale dates

From your terminal

Install the CLI from our CLI page, sign in with ticketfairy auth login, and choose the brand you are working on with ticketfairy brand use <BRAND_ID>. ticketfairy brand list and ticketfairy event list show the IDs the other commands use.

Check the event, publish it at the announced time, then watch what it sells.

Show the event and its ticket types before you open it

ticketfairy event get <EVENT_ID>

Put the event on sale

ticketfairy event publish <EVENT_ID>

Release more tickets when a tier sells out

  1. Open the next release

    Open the ticket type you held back and set its sale window to start now.

    Note: Holding stock back is what gives you something to release. Decide the price of the next tier before the on-sale, not during it.

Fai can open the next release once you approve the price and the number.

In your dashboard, with Fai

For <EVENT NAME>, open the next ticket release now and tell me the price and allocation before you change anything

From your own assistant, over MCP

Keep --read-only in your MCP configuration. This task only reads data, so your assistant does not need tools that make changes.

Pick the brand, find the event <EVENT NAME> and show its ticket types

From your terminal

Open the held release from the command line.

Show the ticket types so you can pick the one to open

ticketfairy ticket list <EVENT_ID>

Collect the people who missed out

  1. Turn on the waiting list

    Turn the waiting list on as soon as the last ticket goes, so the demand after a sell-out is captured rather than lost.

    Note: A waiting list collected in the first hour is the audience for your next release, and for your next event.

Fai can open the event so you can turn the waiting list on. Switching it on and reading its members are dashboard jobs today.

In your dashboard, with Fai

Open <EVENT NAME> so I can turn on its waiting list

From your own assistant, over MCP

Keep --read-only in your MCP configuration. This task only reads data, so your assistant does not need tools that make changes.

Pick the brand, find the event <EVENT NAME> and show its waiting list

From your terminal

Read the event to confirm the waiting list is collecting.

Show the event and its current settings

ticketfairy event get <EVENT_ID>

Questions you might have

Should I publish by hand or schedule it?
Schedule it. The event opens at the minute you announced without anyone having to be at a keyboard, and you spend that minute watching the sales instead.
What if no tickets sell in the first ten minutes?
Open the event page yourself as a buyer would. A ticket type whose sale window has not opened, an unconnected payment account and an unpublished event all look the same from the report.
Is it worth expecting a rush?
If you expect more demand than tickets, read the guide on keeping a high-demand on-sale running smoothly before the day. Its choices have to be made in advance.

Related 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.

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