# Set up ticketing for a multi-day festival | Ticket Fairy Guides 1. [Ticket Fairy](https://www.ticketfairy.com/) 2. [Guides](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides) 3. Set up ticketing for a multi-day festival # Set up ticketing for a multi-day festival How to shape ticket classes, release tiers, camping and travel add-ons, and the resale rules that keep touts out of a festival on sale. Who it is for: Festival organisers and their ticketing leads How long it takes: 25 minutes Checked against the dashboard: 24 August 2026 ## Steps 1. ### Decide your classes before your tiers Start with what a buyer actually gets: general admission, VIP, and any day tickets. Keep this list short. Every class you add is another choice the buyer has to make before they can pay, and another one you have to price, stock and explain on your event page. You can always add a class later; taking one away once it has sold is much harder. 2. ### Create a ticket category for each class A class is a ticket category, and it has to exist before the tiers can join it. Open Ticket Categories on your Tickets screen, select Create Category, and put the name your buyers will recognise in Category Name: General Admission, VIP. Leave Resale Type on Current Tier unless you have a reason not to. Current Tier means a ticket someone resells goes back on sale at the price you are charging at that moment, which is what everyone else is paying that day; Final Tier always re-lists it at your last tier price instead. This step is what turns a list of ticket types into the GA and VIP sections your buyers actually see, so it comes before the tiers rather than after them. 3. ### Add a release tier inside each category Create early bird, first release, second release and final release as separate ticket types, and set the Ticket Category dropdown on each one to the class it belongs to. Give each one its own allocation and price, so the cheapest tickets are genuinely limited and the price rises as the festival gets closer. A tier left on No category still sells; it just sits outside the class, so the grouping your buyers see has a hole in it. 4. ### Give each release its own sale window Set the dates each release opens and closes, and keep the later ones hidden until their turn. For when each hidden release appears, choose either when the previous ticket type sells out or at a specific time, whichever comes first. That one choice covers both ways a festival moves through its tiers: the date arrives, or early bird goes early. Pick the date only option and a release that sells out at midday leaves nothing on sale until the next date lands, so choose it only where you want that gap. 5. ### Add camping, parking and travel as add-ons Anything that is not admission belongs in add-ons: camping, campervan permits, parking, meal packages, VIP upgrades. The buyer picks them in the same checkout, so a festival weekend is one order rather than three. Where an add-on comes in sizes or options, use variants rather than a separate add-on for each. 6. ### Put a name on every ticket, and ask for ID Open your anti-scalping and fraud settings and turn on names required, so each ticket carries the attendee name rather than only the buyer. Turn on name checks with it, and the door checks those names against your guest list on entry. Turn on the ID requirement in the same place: it is a separate setting, and it is the one that puts "bring a valid photo ID" in the email your attendees get. Without it your door team has a name on a ticket and no way to prove the person holding it is that person, which is exactly what the resale rules in the next step depend on. 7. ### Let people resell at face value, on your event page A buyer who cannot come passes their ticket on through your own event page rather than through a tout. The new buyer pays the same price as everyone else, so there is no margin in touting a ticket you cannot mark up. That price comes from the Resale Type on the ticket category, not from what the seller paid: on Current Tier it is whatever that class is selling for on the day. Someone who bought at early bird therefore gets their early bird price back while their ticket re-lists at the current one, which is the question your inbox will get, so it is worth saying on your event page. The original code stops working, the new holder gets a ticket in their own name, and your door team scans one ticket that works instead of arguing with someone holding a screenshot. Two things are worth knowing before you turn it on. Outside India, switching resale on also puts a 10% resale fee on each resale, and the seller sees it as two separate movements rather than one net figure: we charge the fee to the card they bought with, and refund the ticket in full on top of that. Tell your buyers, because a charge they were not expecting is the one that gets disputed. That 10% is set for you rather than on this screen, so contact us if your event needs a different one. And resale covers tickets that someone paid for online at checkout: a free ticket, a gift, and a ticket redeemed from a pass stay with the person holding them. The same settings screen can block resale outright, for tickets or for add-ons, if your event needs that instead. ## Or ask an assistant to do it All of this is faster to say than to click, and both Fai in your dashboard and your own assistant over MCP can do it: the categories, the releases inside them with their own prices and sale windows, the camping, parking and travel add-ons, and the anti-touting settings at the end. Each one stops and asks you before it changes anything, so you see the anti-touting choices before they are saved rather than after. Say which releases start hidden and what brings each one out, because a new tier is created on sale and public unless you say otherwise, and a prompt that leaves it out puts early bird through final release on sale together. ### In your dashboard, with Fai Set up general admission and VIP as ticket categories for this festival, with early bird, first release, second release and final release inside each, and add camping and parking as add-ons. Only early bird should be on sale at the start: hide the later releases and set each one to appear when the release before it sells out or on a date I give you, whichever comes first. Then require attendee names, turn on name checks and the ID requirement, and allow resale. Ask me for the prices, allocations and dates as you go. ### From your own assistant, over MCP Connect your assistant to [our MCP server](https://www.ticketfairy.com/mcp-server) and ask it: The setup on that page starts your assistant in read-only mode, where it can look but change nothing. Take `--read-only` out of it to let the assistant do this for you. It then asks you to approve each change before it makes it. Pick the brand and event I am selling, list its ticket categories, then create general admission and VIP as categories and put early bird, first release, second release and final release inside each. Leave only early bird on sale: create the later releases hidden, and set each to unhide when the release before it sells out or on a date I give you, whichever comes first. Add camping and parking as add-ons, and turn on names required, name checks, the ID requirement and resale. Ask me for prices, allocations and dates before creating anything. ## Questions people ask about this How do I set up early bird and release tiers for a festival?: Make each release its own ticket type inside the class it belongs to, and give each one its own sale window. Keep the later ones hidden and set them to appear either when the previous ticket type sells out or at a specific time, whichever comes first. Early bird, first release, second release and final release then hand over to each other on their own, whether the date arrives first or the tickets run out first. What is the difference between a ticket class and a tier?: A class is what the buyer gets, such as general admission or VIP. A tier is what they pay for it depending on how early they buy. One class usually holds several tiers. How do I sell camping passes with a festival ticket?: As an add-on. Camping, parking, meal packages and VIP upgrades all sell alongside the ticket, so the buyer picks a pitch in the same checkout instead of coming back for a second order. How do I stop touts reselling my festival tickets?: Require a name on every ticket and let people resell through your event page, where resale is face value only. There is no margin in touting a ticket you cannot mark up, the old code stops working at the gate, and the new holder gets their own. ## Where to go next - [See what else this part of Ticket Fairy does](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/festival-ticketing-software) - [Connect your Meta and network advertising pixels](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/connect-meta-and-network-pixels) ## Run your next event on Ticket Fairy Create an account and set your first event up in an afternoon, with these guides beside you. 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