Festival management software: line-up, crew and budget in one place

The timetable shows each stage as its own column, with performances, soundchecks, changeovers and breaks. Evnty rejects two acts on one stage at the same time, one act on two stages at once and changeovers shorter than your minimum. Nights past midnight stay one show day, because you set when your festival day starts.

Once the running order is final, you publish it and export it as a PDF for production and crew, as CSV or as an iCal file. Details are on the artist booking page.

The booking team proposes acts with a pitch and an estimated fee and votes on them. The board follows each request through hold, offer and negotiation to the contract. Holds get an expiry date, and Evnty reminds the people responsible before one lapses.

International acts bring extra costs in Germany. When you set the artist social levy (KSK) and the § 50a withholding tax on a booking, Evnty adds them as their own budget lines next to fee, travel and hotel. Whether they apply is a question for your tax advisor.

Bar, security, entrance, cloakroom, awareness, stage crew: every shift belongs to a position with a location, times, a planned break and the number of people you need. When you fill a shift, Evnty ranks people by qualification, availability and the hours already planned this month. Certificates such as first aid have an expiry date, and Evnty flags assignments where one runs out before the shift ends.

For the season you publish application forms with your own questions, positions and selectable days. Accepted applicants become employees with their availability and get an invitation to the staff portal, where they accept or decline their shifts.

Festival days are long, and many crew members work as mini-jobbers or on short-term contracts. Evnty checks every assignment for rest periods, daily maximum hours and breaks, forecasts the mini-job earnings limit and counts days against the 70-day limit for short-term employment. For minors, shifts that break the Youth Employment Protection Act are blocked. The checks follow German law, as described under crew scheduling.

Festival sites rarely have a stable network. At the entrance or backstage you set up a kiosk tablet where crew clock in with a PIN or QR badge. Punches are stored on the device and sent once the connection is back, and each punch counts exactly once. Crew can also clock in through the staff portal on their own phone.

After the festival you approve the hours, close the month and export the records for payroll and for a customs inspection (FKS). More under time tracking.

The built-in categories cover artists, production, security, permits, insurance and more on the cost side, and tickets, bar, sponsoring and merch on the income side. Confirmed fees, approved hours and allocated invoices fill in the actual costs without anyone typing them.

Before the gates open you freeze the approved plan as a baseline. After the festival you compare the outcome with it and export a PDF budget report for partners, sponsors or funders.

For the next edition you duplicate the festival: stages, budget structure and the shift skeleton come along, bookings and invoices don't. The artist database keeps every act's history with the fees actually paid.