Day-of-show checklist for organizers

Work through this list in order, from the morning of the show to the morning after. On show day, the big things usually go fine. What breaks the night is small misses stacking up: door staff unsure what to do with a duplicate scan, a comp list on a phone that died, a day-of tier that did not open because nobody set the time. This list covers those.

Morning of

• Check ticket sales. Note the count. This is your baseline against scans tonight.
• Send the day-of email blast. One blast. Set times, doors, parking, ID requirements, "your QR is in your inbox". Keep it short. How to write it.
• Confirm advance off-sale time. Verify your advance tier is set to go off-sale at doors-open. Verify your day-of tier is set to open at the same moment. If they are not both set, set them now.
• Double-check the address on the event page. It takes a minute and catches a mistake more often than you would think.
• Send the comp list. Make sure every comp recipient has received their ticket email. The list of people you owe a free ticket to should be at zero before doors.

4 hours before doors

• Arrive at the venue. Verify the venue is unlocked, power is on, and the room looks like a show is happening tonight.
• Confirm sound and lights. Touch base with the engineer. Walk through soundcheck timing.
• Walk the door area. Where will the scanner stand? Where will the line form? Is there a covered area in case of weather? Where is the nearest power outlet?
• Position a power strip at the door. Phones drain fast when scanning. Six outlets and three charge cables.
• Set up a walk-up sales station if you allow walk-ups. A tablet with the event page bookmarked, near the door but not blocking it. Decide who is responsible for ringing walk-ups in and who is scanning advance tickets.

2 hours before doors

• Brief door staff. Walk them through the three scanner states (green, amber, red) and what to say in each case. See How to scan tickets at the door.
• Test scan. One real valid ticket. One ticket that has already been scanned in. Door staff sees both screens before the line is real.
• Confirm ID requirements. At 21+ venues, the door is checking ID. Brief on what counts as valid (state ID, passport, military ID) and what does not.
• Hand off the comp list. If you have walk-up comps (artist guests adding people last minute), the door has a process for verifying them against your artist guarantees.
• Confirm soundcheck is done. If openers are still checking 30 minutes before doors, doors will be late.

Doors open

• Advance tier auto-closes. If you set it up, this happens without you touching anything. Verify on your phone.
• Day-of tier auto-opens. Same. Walk-ups can now buy at the day-of price.
• First 15 minutes is the rush. Have two scanner stations running in parallel for anything bigger than about 150 cap. A bottleneck at the door costs you more in goodwill than the extra door staff cost in pay.
• Walk the room. Are people standing in the right places? Is the merch table set up? Is the bar staffed? Is anyone looking confused?

During the show

• Stay near the door for the first hour. Late arrivals are the most likely place for scanner edge cases (dead phones, tickets passed along to a friend, "I know I bought one but cannot find the email"). The fewer hands the buyer has to be passed between, the better.
• Watch for repeat scans. A cluster of amber "Already used" results usually means one ticket was shared as a screenshot: the first person in got through, the rest did not. Calm conversation, look them up by name, resolve.
• Track no-shows. The ticket holder list, filtered to Redeemed, shows exactly who has been checked in. A high no-show rate after the first hour means the headliner is about to play to a smaller room than you sold.
• Take a break. Eat something. Drink water. The show takes care of itself once doors are open.

After the last person walks in

• Close walk-up sales. Whether that means the day-of tier off-sale time fires automatically, or you manually end sales when the headliner starts, decide in advance.
• Reconcile cash. If you took any cash at the door for walk-ups (rare, but it happens), count it and lock it somewhere safe before the show is over, not after.
• Comp list reconciliation. Cross-check the comp tickets that were scanned in against your comp list. Useful for knowing which artist guests showed up.

After the show ends

• Pay the artists. If you owed cash on the night (guarantees, percentages of the door), pay before everyone goes home. Get a receipt or signed acknowledgment.
• Pay the venue. Same. Whatever the agreement said.
• Tip the door staff and sound engineer. Cash if you have it. The whole crew is more likely to work for you next time if they remember you walked out and put cash in their hand.

Next morning

• Send the thank-you blast. One blast. Photos, next show, plain text. See email blasts that help.
• Pull the numbers. Tickets sold by tier, scans, no-shows, walk-ups, gross revenue, net after fees. Write it down in the same document where you saved last show's numbers.
• Note what went wrong. Anything that surprised you, anything a door staff member flagged, anything you would do differently. Five minutes of writing today saves you an hour of remembering before the next show.
• Issue any refunds. A buyer who paid but did not show up due to a documented emergency, case by case. Follow your own refund policy.

Related

• How to scan tickets at the door
• Email blasts that help your show
• Comp ticket