How to Sell Last-minute Festival Tickets

It’s a valid question. With reduced disposable income and lower consumer confidence, more festival-goers are leaving their purchases to the final days. This shift creates added pressure for organisers and, in extreme cases, can lead to cancellations. According to Skiddle data, almost a fifth of festival tickets during the 2024 season were sold in the final week before the event.

To help, we’ve created a practical guide packed with proven strategies, helpful tools, and industry insights to help you convert last-minute buyers and drive up those final sales.

Understand Your Audience & Sales Window

Knowing when your audience is most likely to buy is key to shifting remaining tickets.

Today’s festival fans are more budget-conscious than ever. Many now delay ticket purchases until they’re certain they can afford to go. Our Festival Report – which you can download here for free – found that under-30s spend around 70% of their weekly income on essentials, leaving little room for non-essentials like festivals – contributing to an annual shortfall of over £7,600.

Use the Skiddle Promotion Centre to track buying behaviour. Navigate to the Analytics tab and select ‘Ticket Sales Breakdown’ to see real-time data by date, event, and ticket type. With this insight, you can fine-tune your campaign, launch targeted offers, and push visibility exactly when needed.

Make Tickets Easier to Buy

Flexible payment options are more important than ever. Skiddle’s Payment Plan feature and options like PayPal Pay in 3 give fans a way to spread the cost.

Our research shows that payment plans and split payment methods are a popular choice, too. We saw a 48% increase in the use of split-payment methods during 2023/24 festival season. Elsewhere, festival Goliath Coachella reported that around 60% of general admission ticket buyers opted for payment plans this year, up from just 18% back in 2009.

While Payment Plans are best launched early in a campaign, PayPal Pay in 3 can be used right up until the day of your event. Highlight this in your marketing to help convert impulse buyers with tighter budgets.

 

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Nail Your Messaging & Marketing

You can see when last-minute eventgoers are typically buying tickets to your events and you’ve got knowledge of some of the available payment options that could help shift remaining tickets. All that’s left to do is consider your messaging and marketing, and the channels you should be using. Here’s a few tips:

• Create urgency: Use language like “limited tickets left” or “final release” in your messaging to prompt fast action. Power words like “last chance” or “selling fast” boost conversion.
• Be visible where it counts: Promote tickets on your most engaged channels. Use social and email insights to reach fans when they’re most active.
• Show off your USPs: Use creative content native to each platform, for example, video for TikTok and Instagram. Showcase headline acts, VIP perks, or site upgrades with bold visuals and attention-grabbing design.
• Run competitions and limited offers: A ticket giveaway or discount code can drive traffic, spark urgency, and trigger FOMO among fans still undecided.
• Retarget interested audiences: Use paid ads to re-engage users who have already visited your event listing or socials. Retargeted visitors are 70% more likely to convert.

Review & Optimise

Like any other phase of an events onsale campaign, the last-push still needs to be frequently analysed. You need to understand what’s working and what’s not. If one channel is performing better than others, it’s important to be aware of it and to know why. You can refine your strategy to focus more on promoting your event via said high-performing channel to attract more sales. 

Analysing your efforts might also help you to cut costs, especially if you’re running pricey ad campaigns.

Use Skiddle’s Free Tools to Your Advantage

If you haven’t already, register for a free Skiddle Promotion Centre account today. You’ll gain access to a suite of tools designed to support last-minute sales:

• Artist Alerts: Add or confirm your artist lineup, and we’ll automatically notify fans who follow those artists on Skiddle. Perfect for reigniting interest and driving engagement during the final days of your campaign, especially if you’re holding back a surprise act.
• Discount Codes: Easily create and promote limited-time discounts through the Promotion Centre. These codes are ideal for encouraging quick action and rewarding loyal followers or competition entrants with a time-sensitive offer.
• Skiddle Reps: Mobilise your audience to help sell tickets. Skiddle Reps lets fans become your street team, earning rewards such as cash or merchandise for every ticket sold. This peer-to-peer sales feature is especially effective in student cities and with younger audiences, providing grassroots promotional support when you need it most (Check out our How-to Video tutorial on using Skiddle Reps below).

These tools are not only free but tailored to help you make the most of your final sales window. Whether it’s alerting superfans, creating a last-chance discount, or boosting peer-to-peer marketing, each can play a critical role in converting late buyers. Find more free features here.

Recap: Key Last-minute Sales Tips

Selling last-minute festival tickets can feel like a challenge, but with the right tools and tactics, there’s still time to make a big impact. Here’s a quick recap of the key strategies covered in our blog to help you boost those final sales and close your campaign on a high:

• Many festival-goers now buy tickets last-minute due to reduced disposable income and cautious spending habits.

• Skiddle data shows that almost a fifth of festival ticket sales happen in the final week before an event.

• Use real-time insights from the ‘Ticket Sales Breakdown’ tool to track buying behaviour and adjust your strategy.

• Promote flexible payment options like PayPal Pay in 3 to remove financial barriers, especially close to event day.

• Create urgency with messaging like “limited tickets left” and emotionally charged power words (e.g. “last chance”, “selling fast”).

• Run competitions and discount code incentives to boost engagement and drive FOMO-led purchases.
• Focus ad spend on retargeting warm audiences – those who’ve already interacted with your event.

To benefit from more event promotion tips and to stay up to speed with all the latest event news and updates, bookmark the Promotion Centre blog and follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn.