The real reason to book your tickets early
… A behind the scenes look
We know how it goes. There’s always that one friend who waits until the week of the show to finally buy a ticket. Or maybe you are that one friend. We get it. Life’s busy, the group chats are chaotic, plans change, and locking something in early can feel a bit… risky.
But here’s the thing: booking early doesn’t just guarantee you entry. It helps us build and design a better event for everyone.
Because behind every event is a ridiculous amount of planning. Spreadsheets, run sheets, checklists, budgets, permits, site plans - and more coffees than we care to admit. And so many of those decisions hinge on one simple thing: how many people are coming?
That number affects everything. So just for a moment, come backstage with us - because when things get messy on event day, a last-minute ticket rush can be a big reason why.
Like that New Year’s Eve event we were tracking at 2,000 ticket sales heading into Christmas. Sounded cruisy - until the crowd size nearly doubled in the week between Boxing Day and show day. Meanwhile, supply chains were on holiday. We ended up forklifting portaloos into the site mid-show, with a human chain of security clearing the way. Absolutely not ideal. Definitely not the plan. Still the stuff of legends…
Let’s start with the basics. Audience size determines how many toilets we hire and how many entry lanes we set up. There’s even a formula for toilets (we’ll spare you the full details, but yes - it includes gender ratios, show length, and audience demographics). The goal is simple: no one wants to be stuck in line when the music starts, or worse - caught short on a hot afternoon.
It also affects how much beer and wine we order. Too little and the taps run dry. Too much and we’re still trucking pallets of stock out at 2am. To serve those drinks fast, we need to roster the right number of staff - another decision that depends on early numbers. Same goes for security. A smaller crowd needs a handful of solid crew. A larger one means a full team: briefed, mapped, and pre-approved by council agencies.
The list goes on, but here’s a handful of other things we use that number for: traffic management and parking, food stall numbers, production planning, council consent and licensing, event staffing (and we all know the good ones book out early - so we’ve got to move fast to lock in the best of the best).
In short: your ticket tells us what to build. Not metaphorically — literally.
And believe me, we hate the queues too. Probably more than you, because we watch them form in real time. Nothing makes my stomach drop faster than a toilet line snaking across the lawn.
The best events are the ones where it all just works. Where the lines are short, the drinks are cold, the food’s hot, and the energy’s spot-on. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens because we had time to plan for the right number of people.
So the next time you see an event you’re excited about, don’t leave it too late. Book early, round up your crew (yes, even if it means another chaotic group chat), and lock it in.
It helps us create something that fits just right. And it means you’ll spend less time in queues — and more time enjoying the day.
Trust us, your future self will thank you.
And so will we.