How to build a festival timetable that survives the night

Before you place a single act, write down what cannot move: when doors open, when the music has to stop, which slot the headliner has agreed to and the technical limits of each stage. The curfew often comes from the event permit or agreements with neighbours, and running over can cost money or the next permit.

Then fill the timetable from the headliner outwards. Support acts get the slots that build towards it, openers the slots while the site fills up.

Set lengths follow the artist's draw and the contract. A common pattern at festivals is 30 to 45 minutes for openers, 45 to 60 for support acts and 75 to 120 for headliners. DJ sets in clubs often run from 90 minutes to several hours. Write the agreed length into the booking, so the timetable cannot quietly shorten it.

Think about the crowd too. A long gap between two strong acts on the main stage can be bridged by a smaller stage, so people move instead of leaving.

The changeover is the time between one act leaving the stage and the next one starting. It depends on the stage, the crew and how much changes: a DJ handover takes minutes, a band with its own drum kit and monitor setup can need 30 minutes or more. Set a minimum changeover per stage and lengthen it where an act needs more.

Rolling risers and shared backline shorten changeovers. Agree on them while advancing the show, not on the day.

A timetable that only lists sets runs into trouble on the day. Plan these as slots of their own:

• 01Soundchecks before doors, often in reverse running order, so the first act stays set up
• 02Line checks during changeovers for acts without a full soundcheck
• 03Breaks for stage crew on long days
• 04Announcements, awards or sponsor moments
• 05A buffer before the curfew, so a delay does not push the last act past the limit

A club night from 23:00 to 06:00 belongs to one show day, even though the date changes at midnight. Timetables that split it across two days confuse crew, artists and guests. Define when your show day starts, for example at 08:00, and count everything before that hour to the previous day.

Late nights matter for staff too: under the German Working Hours Act, the hours between 23:00 and 06:00 count as night time (§ 2 ArbZG). The crew scheduling guide covers the rules that apply to crew shifts.

Before the timetable goes out, check four things: no two acts on the same stage at the same time, no act on two stages at once, every changeover at least the stage's minimum and every slot inside the event days and before the curfew. These errors are easy to make in a spreadsheet and expensive on site.

Crew, production, artists and guests need the same timetable in different formats: a running order for the stage manager, a calendar file for artists and crew, a public version for the website or app. Publish a final version with a date and send changes as a new version, so nobody works from an old screenshot.

1. Arbeitszeitgesetz (ArbZG), § 2: night time from 23:00 to 06:00

This guide is a practical overview and does not replace legal or tax advice.