How Forbidden Forest Sold Out 22,000 Tickets in 36 Hours

How Forbidden Forest Sold-Out 22,000 Tickets in 36 Hours.

Date

2026

Deliverables

Strategy

Paid Media

Campaign

Location

Chelsa

Sector

Festivals

Forbidden Forest sold out 22,000 tickets in 36 hours. The strategy behind it was a single, counter-intuitive budget decision: 75% of the marketing spend went in before the lineup was announced. The festival's committed returning audience did not need to see the lineup to buy. They needed to be reached at the right moment, with the right message, before the announcement made every other festival in the market noisier. We built the system that found that moment and capitalised on it.

Find out more

The results

22,000

Tickets sold within 36 hours

75%

Of marketing budget spent pre-lineup announcement

Full price

Sell-out

the challenge

Forbidden Forest had a loyal returning audience and a strong brand, but its campaign had historically been structured like most festivals: hold the budget for the lineup announcement, release it alongside the reveal, and rely on the excitement of the announcement to drive conversions. That approach works, but it has a ceiling. By the time the lineup drops, every competing festival is also advertising and the audience is distracted.

The brief was to find a better window where Forbidden Forest's own audience was reachable before the market got noisy, and where purchase intent was already high enough that creative did not need to do all the heavy lifting.

The Approach

Our analysis of the Forbidden Forest audience identified a specific behavioural pattern: returning attendees began showing digital purchase intent signals several weeks before the lineup announcement. Search activity, social engagement with the brand, interaction with event-adjacent content. These were people who had already decided to come back, waiting for the formal announcement to give them permission to buy.

The campaign was rebuilt to reach them before that wait started. A structured sign-up campaign launched in the pre-announcement window, offering early access and Super Early Bird pricing to an audience primed to convert.

The budget split was restructured to reflect this insight. 75% of the total spend was deployed in the pre-announcement window. The remaining 25% was held for the announcement: still a significant presence at the moment of highest general awareness without being the campaign's primary lever.

The 36-hour sell-out was the direct result of the pre-announcement build. By the time the lineup was revealed, a significant proportion of the festival's inventory had already been allocated to returning attendees who had converted in the sign-up window. The announcement landed on an audience that had already been segmented, targeted, and partially converted.

The full-price sell-out matters as much as the speed. Festivals that sell out under time pressure often do so through late discounting. In this case with Forbidden Forest , we did not discount because the pre-announcement system generated demand at the right price point, at the right time.

Mustard played an integral role in delivering the best results we’ve ever experienced since acquiring the festival. We view the team at Mustard as an extension of our in-house marketing department, working in synergy all year round. They are experts in their fields and go above and beyond to strive for the best results. Not only are they there every step of the way throughout a campaign, they also offer strategic seminars on specialist areas to enhance clients' knowledge during the process. I'd highly recommend the team at Mustard for any industry professionals looking to take their paid media to the next level.

Laura Ball

Festival Marketing Director

What This Means for Festival Brands

The 75/25 budget split is the most transferable insight from the Forbidden Forest campaign. It applies wherever there is an established audience, a lineup-dependent purchase cycle, and a campaign that has historically waited for the announcement to begin.

Your returning audience has already made the decision to come back. They need a reason to commit, and the lineup announcement is the last thing that will provide it. A well-timed pre-announcement campaign gives them that reason at a moment when they are reachable without competition from every other festival advertising alongside your reveal.

The practical implication: if your campaign currently starts with the lineup announcement, you are deploying your budget at the noisiest possible moment. Ask how much intent already exists before that announcement, and build the campaign to capture it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When should you start selling festival tickets?

Before the lineup. Forbidden Forest sold out 22,000 tickets in 36 hours by investing 75% of its marketing budget in the pre-announcement window, when purchase intent from returning fans was already high and competition from other festivals was low.

Q: How do you sell festival tickets faster?

Find the window where your audience is already ready to buy, and reach them there. For Forbidden Forest, that was the pre-announcement period. A sign-up campaign with Super Early Bird access converted committed returning fans before the general market became competitive.

Q: What is a Super Early Bird festival strategy?

A structured pre-announcement campaign that offers early access or pricing to an identified segment of returning, high-intent fans before the lineup is confirmed. Forbidden Forest used this approach to deploy 75% of its budget in the pre-announcement window, converting 22,000 tickets in 36 hours when the announcement dropped.

Q: How much of a festival marketing budget should go before the lineup announcement?

More than you think. Forbidden Forest's 75/25 split is a strong benchmark for a festival with an established returning audience. The principle of front-loading holds wherever there are returning fans who can be reached before the market gets noisy.