Ticketing for a student gala with HelloAsso
Prices, quotas, online payment, ticket checks at the door: setting up ticketing for a gala or a welcome weekend (WEI) with HelloAsso and toGaether.
The gala, the welcome weekend (WEI) or the freshers' party are often the biggest budgets of a student association's year. They are also the ones where poorly prepared ticketing costs the most: tickets sold beyond capacity, members paying the external rate, an endless queue at the door. Here is how to set up ticketing that holds up.
Why HelloAsso
HelloAsso is a payment platform designed for associations. It is free for the association: no subscription and no commission taken from sales. It is funded by a voluntary contribution suggested to the payer at checkout, which they can change or decline.
Payments are collected on the association's HelloAsso account, then transferred to its bank account. The association must therefore be declared and hold a bank account in its own name (see setting up a student association).
toGaether uses HelloAsso to collect payments and takes no platform commission on top.
Preparing the ticketing before sales open
Set the capacity
Start from the venue's actual capacity and the safety constraints, not from the number of tickets you would like to sell. The event's capacity is the ceiling beyond which no more tickets are sold, across all ticket types.
Build the ticket types
A ticket type is a price, an audience and, where relevant, a quota. For example:
| Ticket type | Price | Audience | Quota |
|---|---|---|---|
| Early bird | €35 | Everyone | 100 tickets |
| Member | €40 | Members with a paid-up membership fee | — |
| Standard | €50 | Everyone | — |
| External | €60 | Guests from other schools | 80 tickets |
Two points to watch:
- Reserve member rates for paid-up members. Otherwise, everyone picks the cheapest. The check must happen at purchase, not at the door.
- A ticket type's quota sits within the capacity, it does not replace it: 100 early-bird tickets out of a capacity of 400 leaves 300 tickets for the other ticket types.
Plan for special cases
Promo codes are for partners or members of the organising team; invitations are for speakers, the school's management and sponsors. A waiting list lets you resell freed-up places without reopening sales to everyone.
On the day: checking tickets
Each ticket carries a unique QR code. At the door, the team scans it with a phone: a valid ticket turns green, a ticket already scanned or cancelled is refused. Plan several scanners working in parallel for the rush, and a "problem" desk away from the queue for cases that need sorting out by hand.
After the event
Draw up the report while the figures are fresh: tickets sold per ticket type, income, expenses, result. If the school gave a grant for the event, this is the report it will expect (see applying for a grant).
With toGaether
In toGaether, the event carries its capacity, its ticket types and prices (including those reserved for members with a paid-up membership fee), its quotas, its promo codes, its invitations and its waiting list. Payments go through the association's HelloAsso account, guests find their ticket in the mobile app, and the team checks QR codes at the door from a phone. Income arrives directly in the association's accounts, already linked to the event.
Several associations organising together? An event can be co-organised, including between schools, with costs shared between the associations.
