Planning festival merch: timeline & quantities
Festival merch rarely fails on the motif — it fails on the timeline. Order too late and you pay for express or stand at the booth with no stock. A guide against both.
The good news first: festival merch is plannable. The bad news: the most common mistake happens weeks before the first print — with the question of when you even start.
Think the timeline backwards.
Count back from the show day, not forward from the order day. Between approval and finished goods, screen printing realistically takes under two weeks — but before that lie motif coordination, textile selection and approval. Anyone who wants to stock the booth at the weekend gives the go three to four weeks ahead at the latest.
How much does a booth sell?
As a rough anchor, the industry reckons on a sell-through of a few percent of visitors — heavily dependent on fan loyalty, price and the booth’s visibility. More important than the exact figure is the consequence: better a calculated base run plus fast reproduction than an inflated first batch that later becomes a shelf-warmer.
Sold out on Saturday night is no accident — it is a decision made four weeks earlier.
Sizes and distribution.
The most common leftover stock is XS and XXL in the wrong quantity. A proven base distribution centres on M–L, with smaller shares at the edges — but the right curve depends on the audience. Anyone who knows the target group shifts it deliberately.
Timeline backwards, base run conservative, reproduction factored in, sizes matched to the audience. These four decisions fall before the first print — and decide whether the booth still has something to sell on Sunday.
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