Web push notifications for events and venues
Events run on moments: tickets go on sale, a set time moves, doors open, it starts raining. Push reaches fans in seconds — and unlike social posts, it actually reaches them. Here’s how venues, promoters and festivals use it.
- Highest-value sends: presale access, on-sale moments, schedule changes, door times.
- Tag fans by genre, artist or event so each person only gets relevant shows.
- For live updates, use short TTLs so stale messages don’t arrive late.
- Subscribers who bought tickets can get practical day-of info via the REST API.
A sample event sequence
| When | Message |
|---|---|
| Announcement | “Just announced: Northern Lights Festival, July 9–11” |
| Presale −1 hour | “Subscriber presale opens at 10 a.m. — set a reminder” |
| Presale live | “Presale is live: early-bird passes from $89” |
| General sale | “Tickets on sale now — weekend passes going fast” (only if true) |
| Week before | “Set times are out — plan your weekend” |
| Day of | “Doors 5 p.m. · Bag policy: small clear bags only” |
| Live change | “Main stage delayed 30 min due to weather” |
| After | “Thank you! Photos + 2027 dates →” |
Send only what each fan cares about
Tag fans on the pages they visit — Pusharoo.tag('genre', 'jazz') on a jazz event page, Pusharoo.tag('event', 'nlf-2027') on a festival page — and target those tags. A venue with 200 shows a year can then send three relevant alerts a month to each fan instead of thirty irrelevant ones (segmentation).
Live updates without stale alerts
During an event, a phone may be offline for a while. A “delayed 30 minutes” message that arrives two hours later causes confusion. Two protocol features help: a short TTL (time to live) so the push service drops undelivered messages, and the Topic header, which replaces an undelivered message with a newer one on the same topic (protocol details). Keep updates factual and timestamped in the text.
Ticket buyers vs. fans
Fans who subscribed on your site get marketing messages. Ticket buyers need practical information. If your ticketing system can call a webhook or script, store the buyer’s Pusharoo subscriber ID and send day-of details with the REST API’s transactional endpoint (POST /api/v1/notify, up to 1,000 subscribers per call). Many ticketing platforms run on their own domains — collect subscribers on your own site and link out to buy.
Getting iPhone fans on board
On iPhone, fans must add your site to the Home Screen before they can subscribe (iOS 16.4+). For festivals, that’s an advantage: a Home Screen web app with the schedule and map is genuinely useful on the day. Promote it as “Add the festival app to your Home Screen” with the steps (iPhone guide).
Test your on-sale headline
On-sale announcements get one shot. Use a send-the-winner A/B test on a 20% slice 15 minutes before the main send — artist name first vs. date first, emoji vs. none — and let the winner go to everyone else (campaigns).
After the event
- Thank attendees within a day — with photos, a survey or next dates.
- Tag attendees (
Pusharoo.tag('attended', 'nlf-2027')) on a post-event page for next year’s presale. - Pause frequent sends to people who only came for one show.
Cost at festival scale
Event lists spike — 50,000 new subscribers in an on-sale week isn’t unusual — and many push tools bill by subscriber. Pusharoo has no subscriber limits or paid tier, so spikes don’t create bills. Pair presale alerts with an A/B-tested headline (send-the-winner) to learn what drives clicks.
Questions
Do event push notifications work without an app?
Yes. Fans subscribe on your website; on iPhone they first add it to the Home Screen.
How do I avoid late “live” alerts?
Use short TTLs and the Topic header so outdated messages are dropped or replaced if a device was offline.
Can I message only people who bought tickets?
Yes, if your ticketing flow passes subscriber IDs to your server; then send via the REST API.
How soon before an event should reminders go?
A common pattern is one the day before and one an hour or two before start. More than that annoys attendees.
Can I send updates during the event?
Yes: room changes, delays or session starts. Keep them short and only for genuine changes.
Keep reading
Push notifications for small and local businesses
What restaurants, cafés, salons, gyms and shops can send, when, and how to win subscribers in person.
Push notification segmentation that actually helps
Filter by site, device, language, recency and inactivity. Six recipes you can copy.
The Web Push protocol, explained
RFC 8030 delivery headers, RFC 8291 encryption, RFC 8292 VAPID, status codes and payload size.
Web push notifications for travel sites
Fare drops, deal alerts, booking updates and destination content — with timezone and TTL tips.
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