Customer Snapshot
- Tickets Sold: 5,000
- Average Tickets per Purchase: 2.2
- Percent of 3-Day Passes Checked In: 96%
About The Targhee Bluegrass Festival
The Targhee Bluegrass Festival began on the grounds of the Grand Targhee Resort in 1988. Today, it continues to be one of the premier bluegrass festivals. The 2024 event welcomed 5,000 bluegrass enthusiasts to the mountains of Wyoming for a 3-day music festival with options for camping, late night shows, parking, and more.
While our Account Managers take pride in helping all their event customers succeed, the Targhee Bluegrass Festival was particularly exciting for Senior Account Manager James Armington. As a bluegrass musician himself, James had a specific understanding of the technology needed to create a seamless festival experience. In addition to working closely with in advance of the festival, James traveled to Targhee to ensure smooth on-site operations. Rumor has it that he even ended up on stage one night himself!
Choosing TicketSignup
In 2023, the first year of the festival after COVID cancellations, ticketing for the bluegrass festival was managed through the resort’s internal POS system. Unfortunately, the system was designed ski lift tickets and repurposing it for festival tickets led to issues with everything from ticket purchase to check-in. After the 2023 festival concluded, Jill Gaylord, the Director of Marketing and Sales at the Grand Targhee Resort, knew that they needed technology that was purpose-built for festivals.
Grand Targhee Resort already used RunSignup for a number of mountain bike and running races on the property. When Sarah from the TicketSignup team reached out, it was easy to determine that the platform would be a good fit for the festival. Key issues that they were looking to solve for 2024 included easy purchasing of multiple items, self-serve transfer options, and speedy check-in for attendees. After confirming that those items could be handled by TicketSignup, they moved ahead with setting up the festival.
“TicketSignup support was amazing. We’re a small team, and James made this so much better for us. He helped with every step of getting things setup and was proactive throughout the process.”
-Jill Gaylord, Director of Marketing and Sales at the Grand Targhee Resort
A Ticket Website to Match the Resort Website
As a resort, Grand Targhee has a professional, well-maintained website that they explicitly want people to pass through. While that site could house a lot of event information, TicketSignup’s website builder was still key for building out the event. With assistance from James, Targhee built out a ticketing site that matched the branding and style of the main Grand Targhee Resort website.
They customized their ticketing website to use the same banner image, logo, theme colors, and favicon as the resort website. Mirroring the site was important, giving ticket purchasers a sense of security that ticket sales were connected to the resort. Grand Targhee also took advantage of the power of the ticket event Website Builder to add submenus and content pages covering key event details. This included everything from parking information to show lineups.
In Action: The Grand Targhee Resort Website and the TicketSignup Targhee Bluegrass Festival Website
The ticketing site that resulted from the branding match was both aesthetically pleasing and functional. A few of our favorite touches on their very comprehensive website included:
Implementing the Cards component to create visual delineation between the various camping options available.
The “Manage Tickets” component allows attendees to easily resend their ticket information for easy access to their QR codes and the ability to transfer tickets. This component was used on the main ticketing page, and then a submenu item was linked directly to that part of the page via an external link to the Section URL.
A “Super Cart” for Easy Ticket Sales
The ticket options for the Targhee Bluegrass Festival are a bit complex with different options to attend. They used ticket groups to make all the options visually digestible. These groups included:
- Tickets for a pre-festival Music Camp, and for a meal plan for the Music Camp.
- Tickets for Late Night Shows for bluegrass enthusiasts who just couldn’t get enough of the performers.
- 3 Day Festival Passes with prices that increased as the ticket supply dwindles.
- Free tickets for Kids (5 & Under). Adult reserve a ticket for their kids as they purchase their own ticket.
- Single Day Festival Passes for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
- Tickets for Camping throughout the festival. There were multiple options for types of campsites and additional people staying at the camp site.
- Parking passes for 3 days or a single day. Purchasers of this option would also need to purchase one of the festival tickets options.
James dubbed this grouping of options the “Super Cart”. While that’s not a technical term, the concept is right. TicketSignup creates a single place from which attendees could add multiple tickets to their cart.
This setup solved a key problem for the 2023 event by making it easy to buy multiple options at once. For example, one purchaser might buy both a 3-Day Festival Pass and Parking. Or, someone might pay for all campers in their group.
With their POS system, Grand Targhee found that it was complicated for people purchasing multiple options – they would essentially have to repeat the purchase process. With the TicketSignup “Super Cart”, an attendee could easily add one camping pass and one festival pass on the main ticketing page continue through the purchase process.
“Ticket sales opened in the middle of our busiest season at the resort. And we had no complaints from people this year on the purchase process.”
-Jill Gaylord, Director of Marketing and Sales at the Grand Targhee Resort
Ticket Transfers
One of the other core challenges of the 2023 Targhee Bluegrass Festival was the process of transferring tickets. With their POS system, this was extremely manual. To reduce customer service, TicketSignup allows for two types of ticket transfers:
- Ticket Transfers allows a ticket purchaser to change their ticket from one option (like parking pass) to another (like a camping pass). By default, ticket transfers respect any event caps that were set. Any price difference is charged if the new ticket option is more expensive.
- Ticket Holder Transfers accounts for the unpredictability of life by allowing a ticket purchaser to transfer one or more of their purchased tickets to another person. Any financial agreement for the ticket (or tickets) is handled directly by the two parties. Once a ticket transfer is initiated by the ticket holder, the initial QR code is no longer able to be checked in. Then, a new QR code is sent to the new ticket holder.
The real power of these transfers was that they were handled entirely by the attendees; no staff intervention needed. To start the process, a ticket holder could use the “Manage Tickets” button in their festival confirmation email. Or, if they were unsure where their confirmation email was, they could find the “Manage Tickets” form on the Ticketing Website (shown above) to send a new email with the link. To make things even easier, Grand Targhee’s FAQ included a link to a TicketSignup how-to for transferring tickets.
On-Site Operations
On-Site Ticket Sales
There were two options for on-site ticket sales. The first was simply a continuation of online ticket sales. In this case, attendees arriving on-site simply scan a QR code taking them to the TicketSignup ticketing site and purchase their tickets via their own phones. They would then immediately show in the TicketSignup Tickets App to be checked in.
However, some festival-goers still want a traditional “purchase at the gate” experience. To accommodate this, the festival enabled the integration between the TicketSignup Tickets app and Square. With this option turned on, attendees could pay at the ticket booth via Square devices and would subsequently be checked in to enjoy the festival.
Easy Ticket Access
One key feature made check-in a breeze: Apple Wallet. Before the event kicked off, all attendees received an email with a button to add their tickets to Apple Wallet. Staff scanned tickets directly from the attendees email, a screenshot, or even printed paper. However, accessing tickets in Apple Wallet made it quick and easy for attendees to access their tickets. Bonus: in many cases, the link will also work to add tickets to a Google Wallet, increasing the number of people who are prepared for check-in.
Managing a Multi-Day, Multi-Entrance Check-In Process
Targhee Bluegrass Festival manages all their attendee options via wristbands. As each attendee checks in, they are given a wristband that matches their access. This makes accuracy during the on-site check-in process very important.
Like their ticket options, the check-in process for the Targhee Bluegrass Festival has some complications.
- Music Camp tickets are checked in days before the festival kickoff.
- Parking & camping tickets need to be checked in at the front gate.
- Festival tickets are redeemed at the ticket booth.
- Wristbands for late night shows might be picked up at the ticket booth or the door to the show.
Checking in tickets was simple: scan the QR code using the phone or tablet’s built-in camera. When a purchaser bought multiple tickets together, the staff member could opt to check them all in (if everyone arrived together) or check in a portion of the tickets. Late arrivers then used the same QR code later to access the remaining tickets.
The TicketSignup Tickets App for Check-In made it simple to manage ticket check-in at each of these locations. The app syncs with RunSignup data continuously. However, the app also handles minor service outages. The data in the app is stored offline, so staff members can continue checking people in even if they lose service. All those check-ins are then saved locally as queued edits. Then, queued edits are synced back to RunSignup (and all other devices running the app) as soon as service is restored.
Each of the four check-in locations had it’s own Configuration setup in the app. Every staff member would then load the specific configuration for that location on their device. This way, each entrance would only see the tickets that were eligible to be checked in at their location.
Check-In Stats
One additional benefit of the Tickets App for Check-In: integrated statistics make it simple to understand the flow of traffic. At a glance, staff knew how many tickets had been checked in and how many remained. This made it simple to make informed staffing decisions, such as when to allow people to take a lunch break. The picture to the left shows a real-time stats review to determine upcoming staffing needs!
Multiple Configurations for Multiple Check-In Stations
“We went from getting torn apart last year to praise this year. The check-in process was seamless!”
-Jill Gaylord, Director of Marketing and Sales at the Grand Targhee Resort
Summary
There’s no disputing that the Grand Targhee Resort knows how to put on an amazing bluegrass festival. When they came to TicketSignup in 2024, they just needed a technology solution as friendly for attendees as their beautiful grounds. TicketSignup’s focus on the user experience made it easy for bluegrass attendees to acquire the right tickets, and easy for the staff to manage the crowds on site.
If you’re looking for a solution for your bluegrass festival, get started creating your event today, or schedule a call with a member of the TicketSignup team!