When should a show announce, and how long should the presale run?

The real crucial period is the announce and the warm-up beforehand, and it’s pretty crazy what a good strategy can do in mitigating that risk and getting those initial sales.

Tell your mailing list a few days before, something like hey, we’re back, so when you announce they already know it’s coming and can head straight to socials and engage on everything. Letting the people who are already part of it in on the secret means they’re more likely to tell others.

For Gay Times, the ballot was live for about three weeks before it closed.

I’d avoid big sign-up pushes over December, because Christmas and New Year’s is flooded, but you can start warming the account then. For a festival in April, I’d start warming in November, about 10 weeks out from early January, which is the safe period after Christmas to start talking about it.

And reward the people who already come, whether that’s a discounted early bird loyalist ticket or early access to a slightly cheaper ticket.