Setting up tickets for multi-day events, like festivals, or events across different venues/locations can seem complex. This article will guide you through the process for different scenarios.
Passe-partouts are sold via a multi-access event when also single day tickets are available. You can recognize a multi-access event by the “umbrella” icon next to the event's name in the Events calendar. A multi-access event links all sub-events together, so selling one passe-partout automatically counts towards the capacity of each linked day. This prevents overselling across all days. If you only sell passe-partouts, you can create a regular event that covers the full festival period instead.
Whether you are organizing a weekend festival in one venue or a complex theater route with reserved capacity, you can build the right ticket types for your ticket-buyers. Choose the scenario below that best fits your event.
Scenario A: Basic Multi-Day Festivals
Use this setup when you have an event happening in a single location over several days, and you want to offer a passe-partout ticket for the entire weekend, alongside single day tickets.
Example: You organize ‘Festival del Mundo’, a three-day festival on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The location has capacity for 2,000 visitors. You want to sell a festival ticket for all days, and day tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Step 1: Create and link events and multi-access events
Create three events. One for Friday, one for Saturday, and one for Sunday. Put the day in the event name.
Create a multi-access event and give it your festival's name, like 'Festival del Mundo'.
When creating the multi-access event, you link the three separate day events as sub-events to this event on the Main tab.
In the column Maximum capacity, you add the max. capacity of the total number of visitors allowed for this sub-event. In this example, it will be 2,000 for each day, as that is the limit of people who can join each day.
This Maximum capacity is the limit of tickets that can be sold for that event on that day. The sum of the sold passe-partout tickets PLUS that specific day ticket can never exceed this number.
Step 2: Setting up ticket sales
Now we want to sell the day tickets in the day events, and the passe-partout tickets in the multi-access event.
Click on the mult-access event (shown in the calendar by the umbrella in front of the name) and go to the Tickets tab. Enter 2,000 at Total number of tickets. That is the maximum number of festival tickets that can be sold.
Add each ticket type you want to sell (Early bird, Regular, etc.) and enter the price for each type. Don't forget to check the sales channel (Online or Door) and possibly more details per ticket type or per sales category (Regular, Guest, Locked, etc.).
Now go to one of the day's sub-events, and add the Day tickets in the Tickets tab of each of these sub-events.
If you prefer to sell passe-partout tickets over the day tickets, you should limit the Total number of day tickets available. Because every day ticket sold means one less passe-partout ticket can be sold. So for the sub-events you could enter the following:
Day ticket Friday: 500 tickets
Day ticket Saturday: 500 tickets
Day ticket Sunday: 500 tickets
When someone buys a passe-partout ticket, there is one less day ticket available for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. When a day ticket is bought, say Friday for example, one less festival ticket is available.
Scenario B: Multi-Location Events
Use this setup when your event spans multiple days and takes place in completely different physical venues or different rooms within a larger venue.
Example: You’re organizing a two-day theatre festival on a weekend at several locations. The locations vary in size. With a ticket, you can go to all locations; meaning you can buy a passe-partout and day ticket and in both cases have access to all locations. You have four locations: Main hall (600 people), Small hall (300 people), Foyer (150 people), and a Cafe (100 people).
There are two options here:
An audience member buys or gets a (free) ticket, and reserves tickets for a performance at a specific location, assuring their spot. (See Scenario C for how to set this up).
An audience member comes to the festival and decides on the spot which performance to attend, with the risk of the location having reached full capacity already.
For option 2, do the following:
Estimate the number of tickets you can sell each day. The capacities of the locations total a maximum of 1150 a day. You could add 100 for people who move between performances and, for example, go for a bite to eat. It's your festival, you know best how things will run, and how many tickets you can sell per day.
Use multi-access events for passe-partouts and day tickets. This is similar to Scenario A.
Exchange the tickets for festival wristbands, weekend wristbands, or wristbands giving day access at the entrance.
During the event, the public walks around and chooses where they want to go. This means first come, first served. You will know how much audience a performance will attract and the best location to put it on.
Scenario C: Multiple Days, Multiple Locations and Guaranteed Reserved Seats
This is the most advanced setup. Use this when you have a multi-day event, multiple locations, and you need to guarantee specific reserved capacity for your ticket-buyers for certain program components.
Example: You’re organizing a multidisciplinary festival over three days at several locations. There are concerts, parties, and performances. The public can visit all program components, but there are a number of performances and mini-concerts for which there are a limited number of places. You can call them Extras. Tickets must be reserved for these, or an extra ticket must be purchased. In order to allow as many people as possible to enjoy these extras, it's recommended that everyone may only purchase one ticket per Extra.
You’re selling: Passe-partout ticket for all days, Day tickets for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and Tickets (paid or free) for the Extra events with limited seats.
Step 1: Setting up ticket sales
The capacity of the festival is 1500 people. You want to sell 1000 passe-partouts, 500 day tickets per day, and smaller events varying between 30 and 100 tickets.
You create three day events with the name of the day in the title (e.g., 'Festival Completo FRIDAY'). Here you add the day tickets in the Tickets tab.
You create a multi-access event named 'Festival Completo' and add the day events as sub-events to this multi-access event on the Main tab.
In the column Maximum capacity, you add the max. capacity of the total number of visitors allowed for this sub-event. In this example, it will be 1500 for each day, as that is the limit of people who can join each day.
Now add the passe-partout tickets in the Tickets tab of the multi-access event.
Create ticket types (under Settings - Ticketing - Ticket types) for the events where a limited number of tickets are available. Make sure this Extra is listed under ticket category 'Membership', not 'Regular'.
Create an event for each Extra, with the Extra ticket type in the Tickets tab for €0.00 or a fee. Check that they can be sold online and indicate how many tickets are available for this event specifically.
Step 2: Reserve seats or purchase extra tickets via Memberships
You want these tickets to be available only to audiences who have already purchased a festival or day ticket. A while after your normal ticket sales go online, you can put your ticket sales for the extras online.
Find everyone who has bought tickets for one of the events. Navigate to Marketing - Contacts - Audiences and look for ticket holders of one of the four events (Festival Completo Friday, Saturday, Sunday, or Festival Completo).
Select all relations found (do not forget to click on select all if there are multiple pages), and then go to Edit - Add (In the bottom-right corner in the yellow bar).
Add a membership at the bottom of the page. Select the ticket type Extra and indicate these memberships are valid until at least the end of the festival.
If needed, limit the amount of Extra events they can visit by limiting the 'Max Tickets'. For example, if you want them to visit a maximum of 5 Extra events, put this limit to 5.
At 'Max per Event', you enter 1, unless you want everyone to be able to obtain more than one ticket per Extra event.
Click Add to save this membership to all ticket buyers.
Now the Extra ticket appears for all people with a passe-partout ticket or a day ticket when they are logged in to the ticket shop. Send an email to everyone who bought a ticket (also via Marketing - Contacts - Audiences) and let them know that the Extras are online! Your audience then logs in with their account and get(s) the ticket(s) for an extra event.
It is likely more tickets will be sold after you have given out Extra memberships. To also add memberships to new ticket buyers, repeat these steps with one change. Add the following rule in the Audience builder to exclude ticket buyers you have already given the membership: 'Memberships' - 'Has active memberships of type' - 'For none of' - 'Extra'.
You can even ensure that people who bought a day ticket for Friday only see the extra events that take place on Friday. Create extra ticket types (e.g., 'Extra Friday', 'Extra Saturday'). In the Tickets tab of the event, select the extra that should go online. By assigning a Membership, you only select the Extra Friday for those who have bought a Friday ticket. For those with a passe-partout, add all memberships.
General Tips
Maximum ticket numbers
Create the single day events first, then create the multi-access event. To start selling tickets, go to the multi-access event via Events and open the Tickets tab. The Tickets tab of a multi-access event works the same way as for its sub-events (the single day events).
You can set ticket quantities in several places:
In a multi-access event with sub-events linked: Enter the total maximum number of tickets you want to sell for the multi-access event (including its sub-events) in the Maximum capacity field on the main tab. Fill in this field if you want sales of the multi-access ticket to count towards the ticket limits of its sub-events.
Per multi-access event: In the tickets tab of the multi-access event, enter the total number of tickets you want to sell. These tickets can be scanned on one of the days on which the linked sub-events take place. (Meaning these are your passe-partout tickets).
Per sub-event: Enter the number of tickets you want to sell per event under Ticket Amounts in the tickets tab of the event.
Per ticket type: You can limit the total number of tickets sold for a specific ticket type within an event. For example, set a maximum for all “Regular” tickets or all “Membership” tickets. Click on 'View details' found behind every ticket type in the Tickets tab of an event and enter the number of tickets of that type that may be sold under 'Total available'.
Ticket links
The "Single event" ticket link of a multi-access event only shows the passe-partout tickets. Each sub-event (single day event) has its own link, showing only the tickets for that specific day.
If you want ticket-buyers to see both the passe-partout tickets and the single day tickets together, make sure they are in the same ticket shop. In that case, the ticket shop will display both types: passe-partout tickets (with a from/to date and the name of the umbrella, which is the multi-access event) and single day tickets. Make sure the multi-access event name is clear for ticket-buyers.
Tickets Can Be Scanned Once
Tickets for a multi-day event can only be scanned once, so it’s recommended to work with wristbands or a similar system for re-entry. These tickets are valid on all days where a linked event takes place. If a visitor misses the first day, they can still check in on later days if the ticket is valid. You can also choose to ‘unscan’ all tickets each morning, allowing them to be scanned again at the entrance.