Automate and optimize festival scheduling
Every festival has a booking sheet that lists who is on the bill and which days they can play. Most still build the timetable by hand in a spreadsheet, deciding which stage each act plays and in what order, and only then checking it against curfews, the quiet hour, and crowd flow. Let's solve it as one problem.
One solve places every act on a stage, a day, and a time slot
Timefold solves stage assignment, day assignment, and running order as one optimization problem. Stage capacity, volume limits, artist availability, and stage curfews are enforced as hard constraints, so every set fits its stage before the timetable is published. Within those rules, the model keeps headliners apart, then balances show flow: prime-time headliners, short changeovers, a quiet night for the neighbors, and fans who can always hop to another stage.
Where Timefold goes beyond spreadsheet timetables
Four places where spreadsheet timetables fall short. Timefold bakes each one into the model.
Changeovers are part of the timetable
Start times follow from each act's real setup and teardown, so no stage is double booked and the last set still clears the curfew.
Headliners get the spotlight
Headliners avoid each other, close their stage in prime time, and big support acts stay out of their way.
The neighbors get their quiet hour
The model keeps loud open-air sets out of the quiet hour, and loud sets on adjacent stages from bleeding into each other.
Fans always have somewhere to go
Staggered starts and changeovers covered by a neighboring stage keep the crowd moving instead of waiting.
Every minute on a festival stage is planned, paid for, and licensed
Large festivals run hundreds of acts across many stages, under curfews and noise limits written into their license. A timetable that slips a few minutes per changeover ends in a fine, a pulled plug, or a crowd with nowhere to go.
Of acts across a dozen or more stages at the largest festivals
Each one needs a stage, a day, and a slot that works for everyone else on the bill.
Per minute in fines when a show runs past curfew
And the plug can be pulled on the headliner in front of the whole crowd.
A typical changeover on a festival stage
Repeated for every set on every stage, changeovers decide how much music fits in a day.
Late set pushes back every set after it on that stage
Start times chain from one act to the next, so a delay at noon reaches the headliner at night.
Constraints the model expresses today
When scheduling works, everything works.
Less waste. More control. Teams that trust the plan.