Run a pre-sale and manage the waitlist

Let your keenest fans buy first, and keep hold of buyers who arrive after you've sold out. For how each of these works for your buyers, see Waitlist & pre-sales.

Add a pre-sale to a ticket type

Open your event, choose Edit event, and go to Ticketing.
On the ticket type, choose + Add sale dates (or open its Sale dates if it has some).
Set On sale from: this is when general sale starts.
Choose Add a pre-sale and set Pre-sale opens. It must be before On sale from.
Save your changes.

Until the pre-sale opens, your event page invites buyers to register. When it opens, everyone registered is emailed a personal link and can buy until general sale starts. Each ticket type can have its own pre-sale, or none. To take it away, choose Remove pre-sale.

Registration closes when the pre-sale opens, so set the date with enough time for people to sign up. If the date has already passed, the pre-sale is open and nobody new can register.

Turn the sold-out waitlist on or off

The waitlist is on for every event unless you turn it off.

Open your event and choose Waitlist & reminders.
Tick or untick Let buyers join a waitlist when a ticket type sells out.

See who's waiting

The Waitlist & reminders page lists:

Event reminders: people who asked to be told when tickets go on sale.
Each ticket type's list: pre-sale registrations and the waitlist, in queue order, with how many tickets each person wants and their status (for example Waiting, Can buy now, Bought or Offer expired).

Choose Export CSV to download everyone still on a list.

Remove someone

Choose Remove next to their name and confirm. Their details are deleted and they aren't emailed. If they had a live waitlist offer, the tickets held for them go to the next person. Buyers can also take themselves off using the link in our emails.

When tickets come back

You don't need to do anything. When a sold-out ticket type has people waiting:

After a refund or cancellation, the freed tickets are offered to the waitlist first, in the order people joined, rather than going back on general sale.
If you raise the ticket type's quantity, the new tickets are offered to the waitlist first too.

Once nobody is left waiting, any tickets still free go back on general sale.

Good to know

The Waitlist & reminders tile appears once your event is published, until it's over.
Pre-sales and the waitlist are for general admission. Seated events don't have them, though on-sale reminders still work.
Registering for a pre-sale doesn't hold tickets: pre-sale buyers draw on the ticket type's normal quantity.

See also Create ticket types and Issue a refund.