These Should be the Features You Want

It’s not unusual for festival organizers to want to offer their customers more options than a single or multi-day ticket. Quite often they also want to package a group of event tickets into a festival pass. Finding an online ticketing vendor with this capability may be challenging.

Festival PassSome food, wine, beer, film and music festivals have been creating a makeshift pass or an all-access festival ticket. Pass holders exchange this pass or ticket for a lanyard pass or wristband giving unlimited freedom to move among all the events or programs. The issue this creates is in having enough room, seats or space for popular musical acts, speakers, film presentations, chef demonstrations or wine or beer tasting events.

A true festival pass is preferred because a single pass is issued, not a fist full of tickets with one for each event. It can be presented throughout the event to gain entry to events within the pass and can be in paper format or a QR code on a smartphone. Both versions should feature a full list of all the purchased events. A third hands-free option allows a conveniently sized pass to be folded and inserted into a lanyard and can also be scanned at each event.

When scanned at each entry point, (in an optimum world with a complimentary iPhone scanning app), it can track and report attendance. Event organizers should also be able to more efficiently control crowds by allotting a specific number of tickets sold separately or within the festival pass. When a particular event reaches that quantity, the tickets and pass are no longer available for purchase. From a safety standpoint, this feature helps assure indoor space limitations set by fire marshals are not exceeded.

As an added incentive for pass purchasers, if desired, a festival organizer could create discounts within the pass, making one or more tickets less expensive than if sold individually. The discounts should be dynamically generated based on selections and then applied. Packaged or bundled tickets don’t offer the same level of flexibility when it comes to discounting.

Like a package, a festival pass can include paid and free events. The beauty of a pass over a package is that ticket buyers can be given the flexibility to choose from one or more of a series of events. Some event organizers choose to bundle more popular events with second or third-tier programming to drive awareness and improve attendance for the lesser known programs or activities

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