From back to back comedy festivals in Brisbane and Perth, to Flavours of Plenty and Great Kiwi Beer Festival in New Zealand, warmer weather is a sign that we’re moving well into festival season!
If you’re in the right cities, your venue is gearing up for a different kind of busy.
Festival weekends are not like the usual Friday night rush or the Mother’s Day spike you know so well. It’s unpredictable and full of people who’ve likely never walked through your door before.
That’s a real opportunity, but only if you’re set up to keep these guests coming back.
We’ve seen it play out across hundreds of venues: restaurants that treat festival weekends like real events come out of the season with more covers, healthier cash flow, and a wider guest list.
Here are three ways to make that happen.
1. Build festival offers around prepaid bookings
Aussies take almost 4 million trips every year to visit festivals, whether the fancy is food and wine events, music festivals, or cultural celebrations like Mardi Gras or Vivid Sydney. Many of those people are looking for somewhere to eat before, during, or after.
The difference between a great festival weekend at your restaurant and a chaotic one often comes down to one thing: how many of those bookings were confirmed before service started.
Creating a festival or event-specific set menu is an effective way to drive reservations, but the real value comes when it’s paired with a deposit or prepayment.
It locks in your covers, gives your kitchen a clear run sheet, and reduces the likelihood of no-shows over high-demand services.
With Now Book It, you can set up reservation deposits directly through your booking flow.
Guests pay at the time of booking — whether that’s a partial deposit or full prepayment for a set experience — and you head into service knowing your covers are confirmed.
It’s less admin, fewer last-minute surprises, and a clearer picture of your revenue before the festival even starts.
2. Turn festival foot traffic into future regulars
Not every festival-goer will plan ahead. Some will walk past your venue mid-afternoon, see a crowd inside, and decide they want in.
Walk-ins during festival periods are valuable, especially if you capture something more than the cover. Without a name, an email address, or a way to follow up, that guest is gone the moment they leave.
This is where your booking system earns its keep beyond just managing reservations. When a walk-in joins your waitlist or makes a same-day booking through Now Book It, their details flow straight into your guest profiles.
You know who they are, when they visited, and what they ordered; and you have a direct line to them for next time.
Restaurants that gather customer data increase return visits by 12% — which means every first-time guest you book in during a festival is a potential regular, not just a one-and-done diner.
Pair that with Sadie, Now Book It’s AI phone host, and your team doesn’t have to choose between managing the floor and answering the phone. Sadie handles incoming reservation calls automatically, so no booking gets missed when service gets busy.
3. Follow up to bring guests back, post-festival
If you’ve followed steps 1 and 2, every guest who dined with you during festival season is now in your database.
A well-timed follow-up in the days after a festival is one of the simplest ways to convert a one-time visitor into a returning guest.
A short, personal message thanking them for visiting, with a nudge toward your next event or a quiet-week offer, is often enough.
What we’ve learned working with thousands of restaurants on post-dining communications is that guests who haven’t booked in the last 60 to 90 days don’t always need a discount— the timing and the personal touch matter more than the mechanics.
If you need more tips on follow-ups, our guide on restaurant email and SMS campaigns is a great place to start.
What’s also great is that Now Book It’s automated CRM lets you segment and reach your festival guests directly, without relying on a third-party platform that owns the relationship instead of you. Your guests, your data, your follow-up.
That’s the part that compounds over time. Festival season becomes a recurring acquisition channel — not just a busy weekend you survive.
Making the most of festivals and events
Events and festivals aren’t slowing down — and the venues that grow with them come out on the upside with that extra reservations and revenue.
If your current setup makes any of that harder than it needs to be, it might be time to look at how your bookings and guest tools work together.
