Who are we?
Who are we?
We are a non-profit cloud based ticketing and box office platform set up to raise funding for the arts.
Through Tickets Ignite you can create events, sell and buy tickets. However, we are a ticketing platform with a difference. Like other platforms we charge booking fees, but in our case a portion of these go into the Ignite Fund which emerging artists; theatre makers, dancers, musicians, comedians etc, can apply to in order to create new work.
It is our aim to raise £100,000 in our first two years. You can help us achieve this ambition by using our platform to set up events and enjoy the brilliant range of live performances on sale.
Who we work with
Who we work with
We want to work with anyone who wants to buy or sell tickets for any event, be it theatre, comedy, performance art, live music, workshops, classes or conferences. We are open to anyone and everyone. If you're not sure about whether we're right for you, just get in touch.
How much do we raise?
How much do we raise?
We are a non-profit cloud based ticketing and box office platform set up to raise funding for the arts.
Through Tickets Ignite you can create events, sell and buy tickets. However, we are a ticketing platform with a difference. Like other platforms we charge booking fees, but in our case about 30% of these go into the Ignite Fund which emerging artists; theatre makers, dancers, musicians, comedians etc, can apply to in order to create new work.
It is our aim to raise £100,000 in our first two years. You can help us achieve this ambition by using our platform to set up events and enjoy the brilliant range of live performances on sale.
Where does funding go?
Where does funding go?
Out of the Ignite Fund, we award grants to emerging artists to create new work.
Artists can apply to the Ignite Fund if they fulfil the following 3 conditions:
1. They have had a connection to Tickets Ignite during the last 12 months. They could have:
- participated in an event that has been sold through Tickets Ignite
- taken a show to a venue that runs its box office through Tickets Ignite
- set up and sold tickets to an event via Tickets Ignite themselves
2. They are an emerging artist
- We will support any artists (or group of artists) that are not currently regularly funded by a funding body and consider themselves to be in the early stages of their professional career
- They can be of any age and any discipline – e.g. performance artist, theatre maker, comedian, dance company, musician etc
3. Live performance
- They are applying for funding to support the creation of a performance that will be live and performed in front of an audience.
Our grant scheme will open once we have raised our first £1000.
Who runs the company?
Who runs the company?
Tickets Ignite was co-founded by Emily Thommes and Oscar Wyatt, a producer and a lighting designer working in theatre. We both know all too well the financial struggles that artists face and saw a clear way to help solve this problem through starting Tickets Ignite. We believe nurturing emerging artists is vital to sustaining a thriving and exciting arts industry where artists can take risks and audiences can experience spectacular and ambitious live performances. With Emily's practical experience of what event organisers require from ticketing platforms and Oscar's experience as a designer and computer programmer, we are ideally suited to creating a new ticketing platform that can help fund new work.
We are also working with consultant Graphic Designer, Guy Sanders, who specialises in design and advertisement for the entertainment industries.
Pricing
Pricing
Like other ticketing companies, we charge booking fees, but in our case at least 30% of our income (after payment processing charges have been paid) goes into the ‘Ignite Fund’ which emerging artists; theatre makers, dancers, musicians, comedians etc, can apply to in order to create new work.
We have two different plans:
General Event Organiser - recommended for all
Event Organiser Plus - recommended for organisers planning on selling over £50k in tickets per year and/or would like the income from ticket sales to go straight into their bank account (rather than via ours).
Event Organiser
This is our default plan and is suitable for all Event Organisers whether you are setting up one off free events, regular weekly events or events every day.
Our charges
- If your event is free, there are no booking fees
- For all paid tickets, we take 40p plus 6% commission per ticket.
For example, you sell 100 x £12 tickets:
| Per ticket | Total | |
|---|---|---|
| Sales | £12 | £1200 |
| 6% commission | 72p | £72 |
| 40p charge | 40p | £40 |
| Total payment to Tickets Ignite | £1.12 | £112 |
Who pays the booking fee?
When setting up the event, you make the decision on how the booking fee will be paid. There are 3 options:
1. Pass the booking fee onto the customer
2. Pay it yourself
3. Split the cost: set a fixed booking fee to the customer of up to £1 and you pay the rest
Using the 100 x £12 tickets example above, here are the implications of the 3 booking fee options:
| Booking fee option | Customer pays | You pay |
|---|---|---|
| Pass the £1.12 booking fee onto the customer | £10 ticket + £1.12 booking fee = £11.12 per ticket | Nothing |
| Pay the £1.12 booking fee yourself | £10 for their ticket | £1.12 booking fee per ticket |
| Set a fixed booking fee to the customer of up to £1 and you pay the rest. e.g. you charge them 65p per ticket | £10 ticket + 65p booking fee = £10.65 per ticket | The rest of the booking fee, which, in this case, is 47p per ticket. |
Event Organiser Plus
- Are you expecting to take 50k or more in sales per year?
- Would you like the income from ticket sales to go straight into your bank account (rather than via ours)?
- Are you expecting sales of over 50k and do not want to charge booking fees?
If you answered yes to any of the above, then you are in the right place! The Event Organiser Plus plan is more cost effective if you are processing a high volume of sales, plus you can receive the income straight into your account.
Our charges:
- £5000 flat fee per year which includes the first 100k in sales
- 3% on any additional sales over 100k
To help you cover these costs, we provide the option for you to charge a booking fee to your customers of up to £1 per ticket.
If the sum total of your booking fees is higher than our charges, we then split this extra income 50/50 (and as usual, at least 30% of our half goes into the Ignite Fund).
Take a look at an example below:
You sell 9,000 tickets for £10 (total revenue is £90,000) and decide to charge a 75p booking fee per ticket to help cover the costs.
75p x 9,000 tickets = £6750.
We charged you £5000 for the year, and made £1750 in profit (£6750-£5000 = £1750), so we then split that income: £875 each.
Many larger Event Organisers are keen for their income from ticket sales to enter straight into their bank account. This can be a big help with cash flow. If this is something you are interested in we can help you set up an account with our payment processing provider at no extra charge.
We can also organise ordering chip and pin machines for you. If you are interested in this, get in touch and we can suggest a card machine supplier that suits your needs. All you’d need to cover is the cost of the card machine, we’d set everything up as part of your contract with us.
To find out more about Event Organisers Plus please email us at [email protected]
We are also happy to meet with you to talk through your options in more detail.
Receiving your event’s box office income
When you sell an event through Tickets Ignite, we aim to pay you your net box office income (gross sales minus Tickets Ignite fees) within 14 days of an event finishing.
In extenuating circumstances this 14 day period can extend to up to 25 days after your event finishes. If this extended payment period applies to you, we will let you know within 48 hours of you publishing an event.
In order to receive your box office income, you must update your bank details in your dashboard, click here to go to your dashboard
These terms apply to all Event Organisers, unless you are on the Event Organiser Plus plan and are receiving your ticket sales straight into your account.
Refunds
When ticket income runs through Tickets Ignite Accounts:
If a refund or exchange is requested by a ticket buyer, the ticket buyer will be advised to contact the Event Organiser directly to process their request as per the event’s own exchange and refund policy.
If an Event Organiser agrees to process a refund, the ticket buyer will be refunded their original transaction, minus a charge of 5% of their original transaction which will be paid to Tickets Ignite to cover payment processing and other related costs.
Here's an example:
A ticket buyer’s original transaction is £40 and they request a refund which the Event Organiser agrees to.
5% of £40 = £2, so the ticket buyer would be refunded £38.
This 5% charge is only waivable to the ticket buyer if an event is cancelled or significantly changed (e.g. change of date, venue or headline act) and Tickets Ignite will process these ticket refunds. In this situation, the Event Organiser is obliged to let the ticket buyer know of a change or cancellation as soon as possible and, irrelevant of their individual refund policy, must provide the option of a refund to their ticket buyer. Tickets Ignite will charge the Event Organiser 5% of any tickets that are refunded.
Here's an example:
An event has to be cancelled because the headline artist is ill. 100 x £10 tickets have been sold (total sales of £1000).
Tickets Ignite refunds the tickets (including any booking fees) to the ticket buyers.
Tickets Ignite charges the Event Organiser 5% of £1000 = £50.
When ticket income runs through the Event Organiser’s Accounts:
If a refund or exchange is requested by a ticket buyer, the ticket buyer will be advised to contact the Event Organiser directly to process their request as per the event’s own exchange and refund policy.
If an Event Organiser agrees to process a refund, the ticket buyer will be refunded their original transaction, minus a charge of 5% of their original transaction which will be paid to the Event Organiser to cover payment processing and other related costs.
Here's an example:
A ticket buyer’s original transaction is £40 and they request a refund which the Event Organiser agrees to.
5% of £40 = £2, so the ticket buyer would be refunded £38.
This 5% charge is only waivable to the ticket buyer if an event is cancelled or significantly changed (e.g. change of date, venue or headline act) and the Event Organiser is responsible for processing these ticket refunds. In this situation, the Event Organiser is obliged to let the ticket buyer know of a change or cancellation as soon as possible and, irrelevant of their individual refund policy, must provide the option of a refund to their ticket buyer. In this case, the Event Organiser must cover any costs lost through refunding the tickets (e.g. original card processing fees).
