---
title: "Food and Drink Festival Ticketing and Trader Management"
description: "Sell tasting sessions with glasses and tokens, check ages at the gate, bring in the right traders with their paperwork and invoice your share of their sales."
canonical: "https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions/food-and-drink-festivals"
---

# Food and Drink Festival Ticketing and Trader Management

1. [Solutions](https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions)
2. By event type
3. Food & drink festivals

# Fill Every Tasting Session and Every Pitch

Sell entry by session, each holding the guests your site takes at once, and add tasting glasses, token cards and parking to the same checkout. Producers and street food traders apply on your own page, Fai ranks them against the mix you want, and each trader you approve pays, books a load-in time and uploads their certificates from their own page. On the day, your gate team checks ages once, and after the festival you invoice your share of each trader's takings from the reports they send.

  [Get started free](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/registration) [Book a demo](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo)

- Every session sold to the guests your site holds
- The right mix of traders, ready for load-in
- Your share of trader sales invoiced

   ![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)

## Sell Every Tasting Session to the Guests Your Site Holds

Start from the One-day festival template, or Multi-day festival for a weekend, and it lays out your ticket tiers, a VIP ticket and a parking add-on to price. Give the session ticket time slots, each with the number of guests one session takes, so a full afternoon never closes the evening. Sell a tasting glass, a token card or parking as add-ons in the same checkout, offered only with the tickets they belong to. On the day, the check-in report groups arrivals by date, then session, then ticket type.

Sessions suit a festival where the bars, the producers or the site can serve only so many guests at once, such as the afternoon and evening sessions of a beer festival or timed entry to a wine fair. A full session greys out on your event page while the others stay on sale, so a guest who missed Saturday afternoon picks Saturday evening without leaving the page. A food festival with room for everyone all day can leave sessions out and sell day tickets in release tiers.

A tasting glass or a token card is an add-on with its own price and stock, and you choose the ticket types it goes with, so a designated driver ticket is never offered a glass. When an add-on runs out of stock, it goes off sale and your tickets stay on sale. A VIP ticket with early entry, a masterclass or a paired dinner can sit beside general entry as its own ticket type with its own allocation.

- **Festival templates**: ticket tiers, VIP and parking to price
- **Tasting sessions**: each session with its own capacity
- **Glasses and tokens**: add-ons sold with the ticket they belong to

[Seating & timed entry](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/seating-and-timed-entry) [Add-ons & upsells](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/add-ons-and-upsells) [Ticket types & pricing](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/ticket-types-and-pricing)

  ![Ticket Fairy Time Slots dialog with a date range, weekdays, opening hours, slot length, price and maximum sales per slot](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-time-slots--generate.png)

## Check Every Guest's Age Once and Serve With Confidence

Set the youngest age you admit, and checkout asks each buyer for their date of birth and works out their age on the day your festival starts. A buyer who is too young is told why in plain words before they pay. At the gate, door staff see each guest's age status as they scan the ticket and mark the wristband as ID checked, so your bars and producers can see the check was done. Your bar team logs every refusal, so you keep a record of each one.

Because checkout works out the age on the first day of the festival, a buyer whose birthday falls the week before can still buy, and a buyer who is too young finds out at checkout and never makes a wasted trip to your gate. Turn on names and ID as well, and the email each attendee receives asks them to bring photo ID, so the check at the gate matches the name on the ticket.

One check at the gate covers the whole day. The ID-checked mark on the wristband tells every bar and producer that someone has already looked, so your guests are not asked again at each stand and the queues at the bars move faster. The refusal log gives your licence holder a record of every refusal for the day a licensing officer asks.

- **Minimum age**: worked out from the date of birth at checkout
- **ID checked at the gate**: marked on the wristband for your bars
- **Refusal log**: a record of every refusal at the bar

[Checkout](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/checkout) [Front of house](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/front-of-house)

  ![Ticket Fairy event details step with the dates, event types, venue, minimum age and description](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-templates--event-details.png)

## Choose the Right Producers and Traders

Traders apply from their phone on your public application page, which shows your pitch fees and extras such as power and water. Fai ranks each application against the mix you want, with her reasons, and you approve, put on the [waiting list](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/event-waiting-list) or decline each one. Approving raises their invoice and gives them their own page to accept your terms, pay, book a load-in time, name their staff and upload the certificates you ask for, such as insurance and food hygiene.

Describe the mix you want in your own words, such as plenty of vegan food, a few coffee vans and local producers first, and Fai reads every application against it. You still decide each one, and the approved, waiting list and declined emails go out in the wording you set. A trader on the waiting list stays one decision away when an approved trader drops out.

Ask outside teams for their insurance, a risk assessment or a gas safety certificate, and Fai reads the expiry date from each file for you to check before you accept it. A reminder goes to every trader who has not sent theirs yet. A monthly market takes one application for every date it runs, you decide each date on its own, and a trader who cannot make a date releases the pitch from their own page.

- **Application page**: your fees, questions and required certificates
- **Ranked by Fai**: against the mix you describe, with her reasons
- **Trader pages**: terms, invoice, load-in and staff from one link
- **Certificates**: expiry dates read by Fai, with reminders

[Traders & markets](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets)

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

## Place Every Trader and Get Them Ready for Load-In

Enter your pitch rules the way you would say them, such as keeping the coffee vans apart or the fire lane clear, and Fai plans pitches for the traders still without one. Drag each approved trader onto a pitch on your site map, and their page shows their pitch, a small map around it and their load-in time. Your electrician gets a power sheet for each zone with every trader's power and water. Traders enter their own listing for a trader directory on your website, and you check and publish each one.

Fai checks each pitch against your rules on the map, and you accept or move each pitch she plans. When a trader asks to move, the request arrives with their reason, and you offer a free pitch that passes your rules or decline with an email that says why. Load-in times sit on your run of show with the traders booked on each, so the gate team knows who to expect and when.

Share a private map link with the fire service or your power supplier, showing the fire lane, the exits and first aid, for as long as you choose, and stop it when the festival is over. The trader directory never shows contact names, emails or phone numbers, and it goes on your own website with an embed code, so guests can plan their tasting route before they arrive.

- **Pitch rules**: checked on your map, with a pitch plan from Fai
- **Power sheets**: every pitch's power and water for each zone
- **Private map links**: for the fire service and your suppliers
- **Trader directory**: listings your traders enter and you publish

[Traders & markets](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets) [Site & logistics](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/site-and-logistics)

  ![Ticket Fairy site map of a festival with a pitch selected and two approved traders waiting to be placed](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders-finished--traders-to-place.png)

## Invoice Your Share of Every Trader's Takings

After the festival, traders send their takings on their own page with their till or card machine reports. Fai reads the reports and says whether they match the figure the trader entered, and you accept it or ask about it. Your share comes from the pitch fee's percentage, raised to its minimum or lowered to its maximum, and the trader gets an invoice with a link to pay. The Invoices view shows every trader invoice, what it is for and whether it is paid.

A share of sales rewards you when the day goes well and suits producers who cannot guess their takings in advance, while a minimum protects you from a quiet stall and a maximum keeps the deal fair for your busiest trader. Leave either bound empty when you do not want one. A pitch fee with no share of sales keeps the deal simple, with the invoice paid before the festival.

When a report does not add up, ask the trader about it with what does not match, and they answer on their own page. Every figure stays on the trader's record with the reports they sent, so a disagreement weeks later starts from the same numbers on both sides. Trader fees, booth costs and sponsor money flow into your festival budget beside your own lines.

- **Takings checked by Fai**: each report read against the figure entered
- **Share of sales**: with the pitch fee's minimum and maximum
- **Invoices view**: paid and still to pay, trader by trader

[Traders & markets](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets) [Budget & costs](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/budget-and-costs)

  ![Ticket Fairy Takings view with two traders' takings to review, one accepted, and Fai's reading of each trader's reports](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-traders-finished--takings.png)

## Keep Every Licence, Permit and Partner in Order

Tick Food Festival, Wine Festival, Beer Festival or Culinary Event as your event type, and Vendors shows every brewery, winery, distillery and food truck you book, from application to on site. Licences and certificates follows each liquor licence and health permit to its expiry date, so nothing lapses in the week before you open. Give a sponsor, producer or media partner their own allocation, and they hand out tickets to their guests themselves.

A partner allocation suits the brewery that wants to bring its best customers or the magazine running a competition. The partner hands out only the ticket types you already sell, up to the number you set for each, from one link with no login to your event, and never sees your sales. Raise or lower the number at any time as the partnership grows.

Your crew and volunteers run the bars, the glass wash and the gate from the same event: plan shifts by team and hour, give each person a pass with the zones and days they work, and let Fai suggest who fits each open place. A bar shift can carry a minimum age, and Fai then offers it only to people old enough to work it.

- **Vendors**: every producer from application to on site
- **Licences and certificates**: liquor licences and permits followed to expiry
- **Partner allocations**: sponsors and producers hand out their own tickets

[Planning](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/planning) [Guest lists & comps](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/guest-lists-and-comps) [Crew & volunteers](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/crew-and-volunteers)

  ![Ticket Fairy documents asked of outside teams for a festival, with insurance, a risk assessment and a gas certificate](https://www.ticketfairy.com/embeds/posters/marketing-event-file-requests--requests.png)

## How Food and Drink Festivals Use Ticket Fairy

- ### A Beer Festival With Two Sessions a Day

  A beer festival sells an afternoon and an evening session, each capped at what the hall holds, with a souvenir glass and a token card as add-ons. The afternoon sells out, buyers move to the evening on the same page, and the gate checks every age once.
- ### A Wine Fair With Producers From Abroad

  A wine fair takes producer applications on its own page, and Fai ranks them against a mix of regions and grape varieties. Approved producers pay, upload their insurance and book a load-in slot, and a magazine partner hands out its own competition tickets.
- ### A Monthly Street Food Market

  A street food market takes one application for every date of its season and decides each date on its own. Traders who cannot make a date release their pitch, a waiting-list trader takes it, and each month's share of takings is invoiced from the traders' reports.
- ### A Coffee and Chocolate Show

  A culinary show sets pitch rules to keep the coffee roasters apart and the fire lane clear, and Fai plans the pitches. The electrician works from the power sheet for each zone, and guests browse the trader directory on the show's own website before they arrive.
- ### A Gin Festival With an Age Limit

  A gin festival admits guests over the legal drinking age, and checkout turns away younger buyers before they pay. The wristband shows the ID check to every bar, and the bar team logs each refusal for the licence holder.

    [Get Started for Free](https://manage.ticketfairy.com/registration) [Book Demo Call](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/book-a-demo)       **Get this page as a PDF** Read it later or share it with your team. We email you a link to the PDF.           What to put in your PDF          Enter your email

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## Everything You Need to Run Your Food and Drink Festival

- [Traders & markets The right mix of traders, their paperwork and payments in before load-in, every pitch on your map and your share of sales invoiced. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/traders-and-markets)
- [Seating & timed entry Time slots with their own capacity and price, sales and arrivals for every slot, and numbered seats or seated areas for shows. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/seating-and-timed-entry)
- [Add-ons & upsells Parking, camping, merchandise and upgrades sold with the ticket, VIP tables booked with a deposit and passes that cover several of your events. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/add-ons-and-upsells)
- [Ticket types & pricing Ticket types with their own price, allocation, limits and door times, release tiers that open by themselves, categories for day and weekend tickets and tickets held back for guests. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/ticket-types-and-pricing)
- [Checkout Ask buyers the questions your team needs, approve orders before tickets are issued, check buyer ID and win back buyers who left checkout. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/checkout)
- [Front of house A box office that balances, ages checked once, VIP guests looked after, merch stocked, fans guided through their day and cashless payments on every wristband. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/front-of-house)
- [Check-in & box office Your door team scans tickets on their own phones, every ticket type gets its own entry rules and wristband, walk-ups buy at the door and you see who has arrived. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/check-in-and-box-office)
- [Guest lists & comps Send guests free tickets that scan at the door, upload a whole list at once and give partners an allocation they hand out themselves. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/guest-lists-and-comps)
- [Site & logistics Your site mapped, hire lists worked out from riders, deliveries booked into arrival times and kit handed out and back. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/site-and-logistics)
- [Budget & costs The all-in cost of every act, one budget your whole team shares, and your spending and sales pace compared across your events. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/budget-and-costs)
- [Referral rewards Buyers earn back their ticket price when friends buy through their link, fans chase prizes you choose, and you see what every referral brought in. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/features/referral-marketing)
- [Crew & volunteers Every shift filled with offers to the people who fit, one record of your crew across events, and volunteers recruited, looked after and rewarded. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/crew-and-volunteers)
- [Control & safety One live control log for your whole site, crowd levels in every zone, an emergency plan ready for every warning, and medical care, barriers and permits on track. Learn more](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-operating-system/event-control-and-safety)

[More about ticketing for Food & drink festivals](https://www.ticketfairy.com/event-ticketing/food-festival-ticketing-system)

## Run Your Food and Drink Festival Step by Step

- [Run ticketing for a food or drink festival](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/run-a-food-or-drink-festival)
- [Sell timed-entry tickets for an attraction, exhibition or food event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/sell-timed-entry-tickets)
- [Sell parking, camping and merchandise with your tickets](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/sell-add-ons-with-your-tickets)
- [Choose which details checkout asks your ticket buyers for](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/choose-which-attendee-details-checkout-collects)
- [Take food, drink and market trader applications for your event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/take-trader-applications-for-your-event)
- [Collect insurance and certificates from your event's outside teams](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/collect-insurance-and-certificates-from-your-outside-teams)
- [Get your traders ready for show day](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/get-your-traders-ready-for-show-day)
- [Set pitch rules and let Fai plan your trader pitches at your event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/set-pitch-rules-and-let-fai-plan-your-trader-pitches)
- [Place your traders on pitches on your event site map](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/place-your-traders-on-pitches-on-your-site-map)
- [Handle trader requests to move pitch at your event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/handle-trader-requests-to-move-pitch)
- [Share a power sheet with your event electrician](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/share-a-power-sheet-with-your-electrician)
- [Share a private event site map with emergency services and suppliers](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/share-a-private-site-map-with-emergency-services-and-suppliers)
- [Show your traders in a directory on your website](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/show-your-traders-in-a-directory-on-your-website)
- [Check your traders' takings after your event and invoice their share of sales](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/check-trader-takings-and-invoice-a-share-of-sales)
- [Let a partner hand out their own tickets for your event](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/let-a-partner-hand-out-their-own-tickets)
- [Scan tickets at the door](https://www.ticketfairy.com/guides/scan-tickets-at-the-door)

## Questions About Ticket Fairy for Food & drink festivals

### Food & drink festivals

#### Should a tasting glass or token card be a ticket type or an add-on?

An add-on. It sells beside the entry ticket in the same checkout with its own price and stock, and you can limit it to the ticket types it goes with, so a buyer is only offered the extras that belong with their ticket.

#### How do I turn on tasting sessions?

Give the session ticket time slots. Each session then has its own capacity and sells out on its own count, and a full session shows greyed out on your event page while the others stay on sale.

#### Can a buyer whose birthday is just before the festival buy a ticket?

Yes. Checkout works out each buyer's age on the day your festival starts, so a buyer who reaches your minimum age by then can buy.

#### Does Fai decide which traders to approve?

No. Fai ranks applications against the mix you describe, with plain reasons, and your team approves, waitlists or declines each one.

#### Can one trader apply for several market dates?

Yes. One application can cover several dates of a market series. You approve or decline each date on its own, and the trader can say on their page that they cannot trade on a date, which releases their pitch for it.

#### How many staff can a trader bring?

As many as their staff passes allow. A pitch fee can include staff passes, and an extra adds more.

#### Which reports can a trader send with their takings?

Up to 5 till or card reports, each a PDF, photo or spreadsheet of up to 25 MB. The takings must be in the pitch fee's currency, and the trader can split the total into card and cash.

#### Does the trader directory show a trader's phone number or email?

No. A listing holds only the name, what they sell, the kind of trader, the words people filter by, a website and an Instagram name.

#### Can a sponsor see our ticket sales?

No. A partner's link does one job: handing out the allocation you gave them. You can raise or lower their limit at any time.

#### Does scanning work without a signal?

No. The Entry Fairy app needs an internet connection to scan tickets, so check the connection at each gate before you open.

## Solutions for the Rest of Your Team

- [Sell Out Your Festival and Lead Every Department to the Gates Sell day, weekend and camping tickets through your fans, see your sales and costs against last year every morning, and run acts, crew, traders and stages from the same event. Festivals](https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions/festivals)
- [Welcome Every Family Through the Gate on Every Day of Your Fair Sell family admission and season passes with rides, parking and grandstand seats, bring in exhibitors and vendors every day and follow every gate. Fairs & shows](https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions/fairs-and-shows)
- [Get Every Shift Covered and Every Team Ready for Show Day Recruit volunteers, fill every shift with offers to the people who fit, get passes, meals, kit, deliveries and outside teams ready, brief every team on the day and approve every hour worked. Operations & crew](https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions/operations-managers)
- [Sign More Sponsors and Show Each One the Return They Paid For Track every sponsor deal and deliverable, pitch with your audience figures, give each sponsor a page with their results, prepare their activations and collect sponsorship money on time. Sponsorship & partnerships](https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions/sponsorship-and-partnerships)

      [Previous **Theatre & comedy**](https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions/theatre-and-comedy) [Next **Fairs & shows**](https://www.ticketfairy.com/solutions/fairs-and-shows)

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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)