Running a multi-day festival is complex enough without your ticketing system making it harder. You need to sell different ticket types (day passes, weekend passes, VIP), track attendance across multiple days, handle re-entry, and manage capacity limits — all without overwhelming your team or your attendees.
WordPress with WooCommerce can handle all of this. Here’s how to set it up.
Most festivals offer several ticket tiers. The most common setup includes single-day passes (one ticket per day of the festival), full-event passes (one ticket valid for all days), and VIP passes (premium experience with extras like backstage access, reserved seating, or exclusive areas).
In WooCommerce, each of these becomes a product or product variation. The Event Tickets with Ticket Scanner plugin turns these WooCommerce products into scannable tickets with unique QR codes.
For day passes, create a separate WooCommerce product for each day. “Festival Day 1 — Friday,” “Festival Day 2 — Saturday,” and so on. Enable ticket sales on each product and assign them to the same ticket list or separate lists depending on whether you need independent capacity tracking per day.
Each day pass generates its own unique QR code. At the gate, your scanner validates that the ticket matches the current day. This prevents someone with a Friday pass from walking in on Saturday.
Full-event passes need to work across multiple days. Create a single WooCommerce product for the full pass and configure the ticket for multi-entry scanning. This means the QR code can be scanned once per day (or more, depending on your re-entry policy) without being marked as “used” after the first scan.
The multi-entry feature in the plugin lets you define how many scans a ticket allows. For a 3-day festival, set it to 3. For unlimited re-entry (like a weekend where people come and go), set a higher limit or use the unlimited option.
VIP tickets are essentially a ticket type with additional access permissions. You can use WooCommerce product variations to offer General and VIP versions of each ticket type, or create entirely separate VIP products with their own pricing and descriptions.
On the scanning side, VIP tickets can be identified by their ticket type. Your scanner staff can see on their screen whether the scanned ticket is General Admission or VIP, and direct attendees accordingly. Color-coded badge designs (available in Premium) make this even easier — VIP badges in gold, General in standard colors.
WooCommerce’s built-in stock management handles capacity naturally. Set the stock quantity on each product to your venue’s capacity. When all tickets for Friday sell out, customers see “Sold Out” and can’t purchase more. Full-event passes and day passes share the same physical capacity, so you’ll need to track total attendance manually or use separate ticket lists with linked capacity.
For festivals where overall attendance is capped (fire code, permits, etc.), set your total ticket quantities across all products to not exceed your capacity. A simple spreadsheet tracking sold tickets per type helps ensure you don’t oversell.
Festivals almost always need re-entry. Attendees leave for lunch, go back to their accommodation, or step out for supplies. The multi-entry ticket configuration handles this — set the number of allowed scans per day or per event, and the scanner accepts the ticket each time.
To prevent ticket sharing (one person enters, then texts the QR code to a friend), you can combine QR scanning with wristbands. Scan the QR code on first entry, apply a wristband, and use wristband checks for re-entry during the day. This is a common festival practice that the digital system supports.
Multiple gates: Place scanner stations at every entrance. Each scanner account works independently, so there’s no bottleneck from a single scanning point. For a festival with 3 entrances, set up at least 6 scanner stations (2 per entrance for speed).
Offline considerations: Outdoor festivals often have spotty connectivity. The Premium version includes offline fallback capabilities for situations where the internet drops temporarily. Test your connectivity at the venue before the event and have mobile hotspots as backup.
Staff training: Brief your gate staff on the scanning interface before the event. Show them what a valid scan looks like, what a duplicate scan looks like, and what a VIP ticket looks like on screen. A 15-minute training session prevents confusion on event day.
After the festival, your WooCommerce and scanning data tells a detailed story. How many tickets of each type were sold? What day had the highest attendance? What time did most people arrive? What percentage of ticket buyers actually showed up?
This data is invaluable for planning next year’s festival. You’ll know whether to offer more or fewer day passes, what your actual no-show rate is, and how to staff your gates more efficiently.
Start with the free version of Event Tickets with Ticket Scanner to set up your basic ticketing structure. For multi-day festivals that need branded tickets, seating, and advanced features, the Premium upgrade adds the tools that make complex events manageable.