Running the production
Build the running order for your event day
Festival and multi-stage promoters usually keep the running order in a spreadsheet that only one person understands, and every change costs three phone calls. A timeline that everybody reads from is what stops one stage being promised to two acts at the same hour.
Lay out every stage and every set of your event day on one timeline, so the set times and the changeovers between them are one picture instead of six documents.
- For
- Running the stages and set times on your event day
- Takes
- 8 minutes
Before you start
- Event management is switched on for your account. The page says so where it is not.
- You know your stages and roughly who plays where. A timeline with one stage on it still earns its place, because it puts every set of the day in one order.
- You have the times you cannot move: the venue curfew, the noise limit and the hour the crew can start loading in.
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Open the timeline for the event
Open the event and select Schedule & Timeline.
Note: One row per stage and one column per hour, with the day you are looking at above it. A multi-day event keeps a timeline for each day.
The running order, one row per stage. -
Set up your stages first
Open Stages and add each stage, room or screen you programme separately.
Note: A stage is any place two things cannot happen at once. A second room, an outdoor area and a workshop tent each earn their own row.
-
Put the sets on the timeline
Add each set to its stage at the time it starts, and give it the length it really runs.
Note: A set that runs to its billed length and no changeover is the most common planning mistake. Leave the gap you actually need between acts.
Load-in, doors and curfew
The timeline is built from set times against stages, so load-in, soundchecks, doors, the curfew and load-out are not on it. Keep those on the task board, where each one can carry an owner and a date, and use the timeline for the question it answers: which act is on which stage, and when.
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Read the day for clashes
Look along each stage row for two sets booked over each other.
Note: The timeline lays out set times against stages, so it shows you a stage double booked. Crew and equipment are not on it, so check those against the crew list yourself.
Or have it done for you
Fai can open the event so you can work the timeline. The running order itself is built and changed in the dashboard today.
In your dashboard, with Fai
Open <EVENT NAME> so I can build its running order
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 it
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.
Read the event the timeline belongs to.
Show the event and its dates
ticketfairy event get <EVENT_ID>
Keep the day current as it changes
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Move a set rather than rewriting the day
Change the set that moved and leave the rest alone.
Note: Everyone reading the timeline sees the change, which is the point of keeping it in one place rather than in a document each person copies.
Fai can open the event so you can move the set yourself. Set times are changed on the timeline in the dashboard today.
In your dashboard, with Fai
Open <EVENT NAME> so I can move a set on its running order
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 it
From your terminal
Read the event back.
Show the event and its dates
ticketfairy event get <EVENT_ID>
Questions you might have
- How many stages can one day hold?
- As many as you programme. Each one is a row, and the timeline scrolls rather than squeezing them together.
- Can a set run past midnight?
- Yes. A set that crosses midnight stays on the day it started, which is how the people working it think about it.
- Does the timeline tell buyers anything?
- No. It is your production plan. What buyers see is your event page and their ticket, which are set up separately.
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.