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Family festival, Lakefest discovered Ticket Tailor in 2026 and haven't looked back. They've tried building their own platform, partnered with several other providers and this year really questioned what it is they needed as something wasn't quite working. It's how they found Ticket Tailor and between a custom set up for their camping spots, support when they need it and a £60,000 saving we'll be continuing our journey with them as they continue to grow.

£60,000 a year. 💸 That's what the team behind Lakefest told us they've saved since switching to a flat fee model. Not from cutting their lineup or squeezing their bar margins. Just from how their booking fees work. I love UK festivals. What I love even more is seeing them stay profitable in a time where almost everything else has got more expensive. The bit most organisers don't realise is that the booking fee doesn't have to be someone else's revenue. It can be yours. Set a flat fee, keep the difference, and suddenly you've got a five figure line in your budget that wasn't there before. Book a call with me to chat about your festival ticket fees: https://bit.ly/4iKoiwY

Lineup vs community - what helps drive more sales for indie festivals? 🎟️ This is a common question amongst UK festival organisers, and most people jump straight to lineup. A big name will certainly help draw a crowd, but as head of the Association of Independent Festivals, John Rostron put it to us in a recent conversation, it's not the be all and end all. His advice: "focus on what you can control." With big name headliners - cost, re-negotiated cost, whether they post on social media, whether they cancel - they're all out of your control. Your community, on the other hand, is something you have control over. So where's the smarter place to put your budget? Check the link in the comments, we spoke to John to get his thoughts...

"Don't start with the dream. Start with something small that you can deliver" I love this advice from John, Chief Exec of the Association of Independent Festivals, in his conversation with Ticket Tailor | Proud B Corp™ about what makes a successful festival. We're seeing a real rise in small and micro independent festivals over the last few years - organisers deliberately starting at a scale they can control, focusing on attention to detail and building real community rather than on big spends. If you're in the midst of running a festival or looking at starting your own, you can watch the full interview in the link below ⬇️ Make sure to look out for more insights from our chat with John in the coming weeks 👀

Everyone wants to start with the dream festival, fully formed from day one. John Rostron, Chief Exec of the Association of Independent Festivals, had a less glamorous but far more useful take when we sat down for a chat: start small, deliver it well, then grow. Not the other way round, where you chase the big vision first and quietly cut corners once the budget doesn't stretch to it. He runs the AIF, which supports 170 indie festivals, so he's watched this go right and wrong a fair few times. The bit that I found interesting: being careful with your budget doesn't mean going for the cheapest option every time. It means knowing exactly where every pound is going and why. Cheap now can very easily mean expensive later. Which is also why who you partner with early on matters more than people think. A ticketing platform that's actually affordable and grows with you, not off you, makes a genuinely big difference. Full chat's linked in the comments if you're building a festival and want the whole conversation. I'll be sharing more insights from our conversation over the next few weeks! Book a demo to see how Ticket Tailor supports similar festivals here: https://lnkd.in/eWxhQnid

"But my customers pay the booking fee, so why would I care what it is?" I hear this a lot from UK festival organisers when I show them the difference between the 10% they're paying their platform now and what they could be paying. My answer: you are paying. You just don't get to decide where any of that booking fee goes. On an £80 ticket, a 10% booking fee is £8. Moving to a flat fee model gives you control of where that £8 pound goes. And the savings can then go one of two ways: 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗿 OR 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝗹. What matters is that it stops going to a platform. Keep £6 of that £8 and, across 5,000 tickets, that's £30,000 back in your festival. OR Pass it on, and nobody hits checkout and resents the fee. So, why should you care? Because now you have a choice other than just paying it to a platform.