Learn how to cancel an event thoughtfully, protect revenue, and keep your audience onside when plans have to change.
When an emergency or unforeseen circumstance arises, sometimes the reality is that the show can’t go on. So, how do you pivot to cancel an event or shift to a plan B that protects your audience relationships and your organisation’s long-term sustainability?
In this guide, we’ll take some of the load off and share practical, connected steps you can take, whether you’re currently dealing with an emergency or building an emergency response plan for the future.
And if you are currently in the midst of an emergency, please know, from all of us at Spektrix, that we’re wishing you well and you have our support. If you’re a Spektrix user, contact us if you need anything. We’re ready to help you use your system and data to make clear decisions quickly.
How to cancel an event or decide to reschedule instead
After weeks, months, or even years of planning, deciding to cancel an event or show can feel heartbreaking and maybe even impossible. But sometimes it’s the best thing you can do for your audience, your team, and your organisation’s long-term success.
Here are some questions to ask as you weigh the decision and balance immediate event safety with long-term audience relationships and financial resilience:
- Will our audience be able to safely and comfortably attend the event?
- Will our team and performers be able to safely and comfortably travel to work the event?
- Would hosting our event prevent emergency services from doing what they need to do? Be sure to consider proximity to the situation and traffic created by your event.
- Do we anticipate that a large portion of our audience won’t be able to attend the event?
- Are different segments of our audience impacted in different ways? For example, there might be a situation affecting one geographic area within your community, where you could send a targeted ticket refund or exchange offer to that audience segment while keeping your event open to others.
- How does our refund policy work? Are there adjustments we would want to make to it in light of the current circumstances?
- How many refunds can we process for this event before we lose money on it, and how does that number change depending on whether we cancel or go ahead?
- Who takes the financial hit if an event is cancelled? If it’s an external promotion, you’ll need to speak to promoters and refer to your contract with them to understand where the decision and financial liability sit.
- Is there a reputation risk to acting in a “business as usual” way during the current situation?
- Would hosting this event be healing for our community, and is there a way we could adjust it to be more supportive or sensitive to what people are experiencing?
- Are we able to host this event virtually?
- What would it take to postpone this event instead of cancelling outright, and how would that affect our audience relationships and our revenue over time?
Ultimately, any decision you make with care is the right one. Your community is in it with you, and with clear communication and thoughtful planning, they’ll understand. They may also look for ways to keep supporting your organisation.
How to cancel an event and communicate with your audience clearly
Communication is one of the most critical parts of deciding how to cancel a show. Once you’ve decided whether to cancel, reschedule, or go ahead as planned, the next step is to communicate clearly with your audience, your team, performers, and your wider community.
If you are cancelling on short notice, you may want to prioritise communicating the cancellation before you work out the details around ticket refunds or the rescheduled date. You can let your audience know that the event has been cancelled and that you’ll be in touch soon with more details about next steps.
How should we inform audience members about a cancelled event?
Email is often the easiest and most direct way of contacting the people you need to reach. Use your CRM to send a targeted email to people who have bought tickets to this event and make sure they have the information they need.
Text message
This is one of the best ways to reach your audience quickly, directly, and with little interruption. However, your organisation will need to have set up SMS messaging software and collected the right audience consent beforehand.
Phone calls
Write out a phone script for anyone who is answering calls, or record a message to your box office voicemail. Depending on the size of your event, your team’s capacity, and the timing, you may consider making phone calls to audience members as a way to add a personal touch. You can choose to call only VIP guests or major donors and use audience tags in your CRM to build the right list.
Website / Social media
Once you’ve emailed your audience, you can post the same message to these channels to amplify it and make information easy to find, if needed.
Event listing
Don’t forget to mark the event as cancelled in your ticketing software to prevent new ticket sales. Post your cancellation message to the event listing page as well so people see consistent, up-to-date information wherever they look.
How do I write an email cancelling an event clearly and compassionately?
The clearer and more direct you can be with your audience, the better. Here’s a simple formula for crafting your message:
- Briefly and calmly explain the situation.
- Say outright that the show has been cancelled or postponed.
- Express sympathy for anyone impacted by the emergency, if applicable.
- Apologise for any inconvenience.
- Offer a full refund and let your audience know what their options are.
- Be explicit about which fees or commissions will be included in the refund.
- Provide a realistic deadline based on the circumstances and an easy route for people to communicate any choices they need to make under your refund policy. For example, “Reply to this email and tell us what you’d like to do by March 1,” or link to a simple form that they can fill out.
- Answer any FAQs that you are ready to answer.
Example of an event cancellation email
Here’s an event cancellation email template you can start with and adapt to your organisation:
Subject: Event cancelled – [Name of show and date/time]
Dear [First Name],
Because of [name of situation or “inclement weather”], tonight’s event [name of event] has been cancelled. We hope you are safe, and our thoughts are with the members of our community who have been impacted.
We apologise for any inconvenience. Here are your options for next steps:
a) Receive a full refund for your tickets.
b) Exchange your tickets for a future show.
c) Receive a credit that can be applied to future shows.
d) Donate the cost of your ticket as a way to support our organisation’s programming and community outreach [include details about anything your organisation does in the community or a specific relief fund].
Please let us know which you prefer by [date of deadline] by replying to this email [or filling out this form].
Thank you in advance for your understanding. We hope we’ll be able to welcome you back soon.
With care,
[Your name and organisation information]
Establish your refund, exchange, or donation policy
Naturally, one of the biggest questions your audience will have is how to recoup the cost of their tickets. You’ll need a clear, consistent policy for this situation that makes it easy for your audience and your team to understand what the options are.
Cancelling an event doesn’t always mean losing all the ticket sales revenue from it. Within your policy, you can build in ways for your audience to keep supporting your organisation, from exchanging tickets to donating part or all of the value.
So, as you craft your policy, consider:
- Can tickets be exchanged to alternative events, or will they need to be refunded?
- Do you want to encourage your audience to choose an account credit refund in order to minimise your lost revenue? If so, it’s important to be clear on your account credit policy, for example, how long it’s valid for and what it can be redeemed against.
- If you’re a charity, in some circumstances you could consider asking your audience to donate some or all of their ticket value back to your organisation.
- If you’re asking your audience to choose whether they want refunds or exchanges, how long will you wait after sending an email before you follow up with a phone call?
- What is a realistic time frame for completing refunds and/or exchanges?
- How long ago are customers likely to have purchased tickets?
Once you know what your refund policy is and you’ve communicated it to your audience, it’s time to start processing refunds.
Every ticketing software will have a different process for how to process refunds, but the underlying steps are similar.
- Generate a list of audience members whose tickets have been impacted.
- Document their decision on whether they want a refund, an exchange, or to make a donation, if applicable.
- Mark off each refund or exchange once your team has processed it.
Take everything one step at a time, and work with your creative team and your promoters to support your audience, your team, and your community. When you’re ready, you can run a report in your CRM to understand the financial impact of the cancellation and use that insight to inform future planning.
Emergency resources for Spektrix users and teams
If you use Spektrix as your CRM, we’ve put together a list of resources with detailed guidance on how to cancel events, communicate with your audience, and more using your Spektrix system.
- Communicate with your audience:
- Modify or cancel events using your Spektrix system:
- Reschedule, refund, or exchange tickets while keeping data connected:
- Access Spektrix remotely: Because your Spektrix system is true-cloud, your team can access it any time, from any browser using these steps to log in.
Preparing for future emergencies and event cancellations
We advise that arts, culture, & in-person experience organisers create an action plan for emergencies to have on hand. Shortly after you’ve dealt with a situation, it can help to jot down some notes on what you might need for next time and iterate from there.
As you build out your emergency plan, ask your team:
- Who is responsible for which tasks when an emergency arises? Who decides if we should cancel an event?
- What is our standard refund/exchange policy for cancelled events? What other situations would trigger changes to our normal refund policy?
- What do we need in order to access our software, systems, and email accounts remotely? Who would need that access? Your Spektrix system lives on the cloud, so it can be accessed from anywhere at any time, but other systems may require that you make arrangements beforehand.
- What templates or contact lists can we prepare now to help with quick messaging? A standard cancellation message that you can simply update and send at a moment’s notice can save significant time.
- Should we set up software to send SMS messages to customers? If you have frequent cancellations or operate outdoor events that are more susceptible to the weather, this could be an especially worthwhile investment to help you communicate quickly.
- What training does our team need? Does everyone know the processes and tools they’ll use to cancel an event and communicate with our audience?
- What documentation can we prepare now? Having a written guide can help with quick decision-making and task execution during unusual or changing circumstances. Additionally, gather step-by-step guidance for any critical tasks, like the resources above, so that anyone in your organisation can pick them up if the person who usually does them is unavailable or busy with other crisis functions.
- What key contact information and quick links do we want to have available for emergencies?
- What support can you expect from your ticketing software provider if you need to act quickly in difficult circumstances, for example, how will they help you use connected data and reporting to understand the impact of cancellations?
We’ve designed Spektrix to help leaders in arts, culture, & in-person experience organisations confidently make decisions as circumstances change. If your marketing, fundraising, or ticketing software is coming up as a blocker in your emergency plan, get in touch with us so we can explore how a connected solution built around audience engagement might better support your long-term success.
And finally, here’s a word of encouragement, because any situation in which you may have to cancel an event is stressful. It’s okay not to have all the answers right away or to get something wrong. Take a breath, lean on your team and your tools, and remember you don’t have to navigate it alone.
