Festival marketing that sells every ticket tier, everything on site and next year’s edition.
Early bird to last call, lineup drops to clash reminders, the craft bar by stage two to the merch tent, promoted before, during and after the weekend. One promoter, on the channels, screens and store you already have.
Nine months of selling, three days of everything at once.
A festival has more to promote than any venue and a smaller team per thing promoted. Tiers open and close, the lineup drops in waves, day tickets and camping have their own audiences, and every one of them wants a post, an email and a reminder. On site, the plan changes by the hour: a set moves, a bar runs dry, the VIP upgrade has room, the merch tent is out of mediums. Afterwards, the week when next year sells best is the week the team is asleep.
So the lineup announcement gets everything and the slow tier gets a post. On site the screens show the map. Bars and vendors do the numbers their location gives them. Merch that could have sold to twenty thousand people sells to the ones who walked past the tent with room in their bag.
SparkleTree is festival marketing software built as an always-on digital promoter. You give it the calendar, the tiers and what you want to sell. It writes, schedules, places and measures the promotion across social, the website, screens at the gates and stages, phones via QR, the online store and the AI assistants people ask what is on this weekend.
Before, during and after the weekend.
Sell the tiers, not just the weekend
Early bird, the lineup drops, day tickets, camping, VIP and the last-call push each get their own run on the channels your audience uses, timed to the announcement calendar you already have.
Promote what is on right now, on site
Set-time clashes, the pop-up bar, the food pairing at the main stage, the VIP upgrade and the merch tent reach people on screens at the gates and stages and on phones via QR, updated as the day moves.
Sell next year while this year is still warm
The aftermovie, the merch that sold out on site, the recording and the next-edition presale go out in the week after, to the people who were there.
Every tier, every stage, every tent.
Tiers, day tickets, camping and VIP
Each tier is promoted in its window with the right urgency, and the promoter spends effort on the tier that is behind, not the one that sold out.
Announcements and clash reminders
Lineup drops with artists tagged, then day-by-day set-time reminders and clash resolutions on site.
Bars, food and pop-ups
The craft bar by stage two, the food pairing at the main stage, the late-night vendor, promoted at the moment people are hungry or thirsty and nearby.
VIP, fast lanes and lockers
Upgrades sold on site to people who are already in the queue for the thing the upgrade skips.
The merch tent and the online drop
Merch promoted before the gates, pointed at on site, and sold online the week after to everyone who could not carry it.
Partner activations
A sponsor’s activation gets a campaign of its own, with the numbers to show them after. See the Dr Pepper × Charlotte Hornets case study.
An edition with SparkleTree running.
November. The team loads the dates, the tiers and the announcement calendar. Early bird goes on sale with a campaign that knows when it closes.
February. The first lineup drop goes out with every artist tagged. Day tickets open. The promoter notices camping is behind and spends its effort there.
The week before. Set times, the clash finder and the on-site map go to everyone with a ticket. The screens at the gates and stages are loaded. Sponsor activations are live on their surfaces.
Saturday, 16:00. The main stage crowd is thirsty and the craft bar by stage two is quiet. The screens nearby and the phones that scanned the stage banner show the bar, the pairing, and how far it is.
Saturday, 22:00. VIP has room. The upgrade is offered on the phones in the general queue at a price the team set. Mediums are back in the merch tent, and the screens say so.
The week after. The aftermovie, the merch that sold out on site and next year’s presale go to the people who were there, with the sponsor report on the founder’s desk.
Where it runs.
- Socials. Tier, lineup and reminder campaigns written and scheduled from the calendar, with artists tagged.
- Ads. Paid social and search prepared for the tier that is behind, with the spend staying on your own ad accounts.
- Signage and DOOH. Screens at the gates, stages, bars and tents, and out-of-home screens in the city: the Android kiosk app pairs any screen or player, and any browser works too.
- Web components. The lineup and the tiers inside your own website, resizing themselves and staying on brand.
- Print. Banners, wristband inserts, maps and end-caps carry a QR code to the live campaign. The print stays put; the campaign behind the code stays current as the day moves.
- Mobile and QR. A scan on site opens a campaign that answers people’s questions: set times, the nearest bar, the upgrade.
- AI assistants and agents. Your lineup and tiers are readable by the assistants people ask about the weekend.
- Your online store. Merch, upgrades, gift cards and vouchers, before, during and after.
Compared with the usual options.
An agency retainer covers the announcement season. Signage software runs the screens if someone loads them. The ticketing platform promotes to its audience on its terms. SparkleTree does the whole year at a flat price and leaves you the audience. Read SparkleTree vs hiring a promoter and SparkleTree vs digital signage.
Which plan fits a festival.
A festival that needs to be found starts with Visibility. Venue is for the edition that wants every channel, the site screens and the sponsors running from one brief, and groups of festivals talk to us about Enterprise.
Visibility, for one festival
The lineup, tiers, dates and site details on pages built for search engines and AI assistants, on your own domain, kept current all year. $895 a month, or $795 billed annually.
What Visibility includesVenue, for the whole weekend
The whole promoter: tier and lineup campaigns, screens at the gates and stages, QR on site, sponsor activations and the store, tailored to each visitor in real time.
See the Venue planEnterprise, for several festivals
Several editions, sites or brands: multiple workspaces, one voice with local campaigns, roles, approvals and sponsor reporting.
See EnterpriseQuestions festivals ask us.
Our festival is one weekend a year. Is an always-on promoter overkill?
A festival is promoted for nine months and sold for three days. The always-on part is the nine months: announcements, tiers, pushes, and the week after, when next year’s presale sells best. On site it runs the screens and the phones for the weekend.
How does it work on site with patchy connectivity?
Screens run the SparkleTree Android kiosk app or a browser, load a campaign over any connection and cache it. Campaigns are small pages, not video streams. If a screen loses signal, it keeps showing the last thing it was told.
Can sponsors have their own activation?
Yes. A sponsor activation is a campaign on its own surface: a screen, a QR code on an end-cap or a stage banner, or a web page. You get the numbers to report back to the sponsor. The Dr Pepper × Charlotte Hornets activation is an example.
Does it replace our ticketing or cashless system?
No. Keep both. SparkleTree promotes and sends people to wherever the tickets and the top-ups are, and sells the rest (merch, upgrades, gift cards) from its own store or yours.
What does it cost for a festival?
A festival that wants its lineup, tiers and dates found starts with Visibility: SEO and AI search on your own domain for $895 a month, or $795 a month billed annually. Venue, the full promoter with screens on site, sponsor activations and the store, is $4,995 a month per site. Several festivals or sites talk to us about Enterprise. See pricing.
See what your next edition could be selling.
A 30-minute walkthrough built around your actual tiers, site and partners.