Event types, dates and states

Known events

A known event is an entry in the TicketSquad catalogue - festivals, tours, and one-off sales we've researched. Being linked to one gives an event, at any time:

• the in-app Guide tab and, for events with past editions, Reviews;
• official catalogue info (dates, venue, ticket rules) shown alongside your own description;
• catalogue artwork as the fallback when you haven't set your own.

Picking a known event while creating also pre-fills the setup as a head start:

• official event dates and sale dates, when the catalogue has confirmed them;
• the event's own timezone;
• the seller's real per-transaction ticket limit when we know it - otherwise the limit starts at 4 and the form says so;
• recommended data fields - the details this event's buyers actually need, pre-built;
• a suggested ticket mode where the catalogue has checked ticket rules; without that evidence the form starts on Named.

Those pre-fills are a starting point - dates, fields, limit and mode are yours to change afterwards (the mode until it locks). The catalogue-only surfaces - the Guide, reviews, and the official info panel - exist only while linked; they're the catalogue's own content, not settings.

Linking later is lighter. Connecting an existing event to the catalogue from settings switches on the catalogue surfaces above - it never rewrites the schedule, fields, or mode you've already set up.

If an event isn't in the list, the Request that we add it button sends it to our curation queue while you carry on; if we add it later, your event can link up from settings.

Recurring events (a festival's yearly editions) are separate catalogue entries under one franchise - which is how a brand-new edition can still point you at last year's reviews.

Custom events

The coordination machinery - joining, data collection, groups or the tickets board, sale day - works the same without the catalogue: name the event yourself, set your own dates and fields, pick the modes. What you give up is only the catalogue's own content: no Guide tab, no reviews, no official info panel. Custom events are the right tool for private sales, local events, or anything we don't cover.

Dates, honestly

Events carry two independent schedules:

• Sale dates - the moments that matter most. One primary sale (usually the general sale) plus optional labelled extras: presales, resale rounds. The primary sale date is what arms the automatic sale-day machinery - readiness countdowns, scheduled board generation, reminder emails.
• Event dates - when the thing actually happens: a single day, a range, or several labelled dates.

TBC is a real state. Plenty of events are announced long before their sale. Leave the sale date TBC and the organisational side works now - joining, data collection, and (on named events) forming groups - while the automatic machinery waits for a real date. Coordinators can still generate a preview sale-day board on a TBC event to see what the group's pack will look like.

Timezones

Every event has one timezone, and it's the anchor: sale times are shown in the event's timezone for everyone, with the UTC equivalent in brackets as a cross-check - so a Squad spread across three countries reads the same sale moment, and a screenshot means the same thing to whoever receives it. New events start on your own saved timezone; linking a known event switches to the event's official one; and an explicit pick in the timezone selector beats both.

Event states at a glance

A few states change what an event will do, and each is visible where it applies:

• Sale date set vs TBC - set arms the automatic sale-day machinery; TBC keeps it waiting (previews still available, above).
• Archived - the event is read-only until the owner brings it back: no joins, no edits, no reminders. Details in event settings.
• Ticket mode locked - recorded ticket evidence freezes the named/transferable choice; see ticket modes.
• Sensitive fields - per-question protection in Closed events; the privacy section is the full story.
• Demo events - the try-it-out world is read-only and pinned to Open mode, so nothing you click there can touch real data.