13,100
tickets through WhatsApp
The main sales channel
Of the 14,000 tickets sold for the 2026 edition, 13,100 were purchased directly through WhatsApp.
Case study · Bontgenoten Festival
How Bontgenoten sold out in one hour through WhatsApp
When Bontgenoten Festival opened ticket sales for their 2026 edition, 14,000 tickets sold out in under 60 minutes. Of those, 13,100 were purchased directly through WhatsApp.
WhatsApp Marketing · 2026 pre-sale
+
+
14,000
tickets sold
13,100
tickets sold through WhatsApp
< 1 hour
to sell out
The festival
A festival that trusts its community
Bontgenoten does things differently. While most festivals launch line-ups months in advance and compete for early-season attention, Bontgenoten waits, announcing their line-up just two weeks before the event. No billing wars, no months-long campaign.
This only works because of the relationship the team behind Bontgenoten have built with their community. Fans trust the concept before they know who is playing. But that trust comes with an expectation: when tickets go live, buying needs to be instant and frictionless. The window between tickets going live and selling out is short.
The tools behind the pre-sale
The challenge
Interest is only the beginning.
Traditional pre-sales ask fans to move from a registration form to an email, then to a ticket shop. Each handoff adds another step between wanting a ticket and buying one.
For Bontgenoten, that friction mattered. With a loyal audience ready to buy and a short sales window, the experience needed to keep up with demand — especially for the fans who registered first.
The approach
A personal shop, right in the chat
Bontgenoten ran its early-bird campaign through Innercrowd’s WhatsApp Shop. Fans pre-registered with their phone number and received a personal invitation when sales opened.
Ticket selection, quantity and payment happened inside the chat. Fans could act on the message with their registration details already in place.
The shop connects directly to Weeztix, Bontgenoten’s ticketing provider. Weeztix handles orders, payments and access control; Innercrowd brings the buying experience into WhatsApp.
Inside the experience
From early access to a ticket in the chat
A familiar channel, a personal invitation and a shop that is ready when the fan is. Recreated from Bontgenoten’s original campaign.
01
Register for early access
Fans leave their details once to get exclusive access to the pre-sale.
02
Receive your invitation
When sales open, a personal WhatsApp message takes registered fans straight to their shop.
03
Choose your tickets
Fans select their tickets inside WhatsApp. Weeztix handles payment, orders and access control.
In the words of Bontgenoten
“From the start of our collaboration with Innercrowd the goal was to reward our earliest fans and reward them for buying early.”
Kylie de Bont
Creative Director and Co-founder, Bontgenoten
The results
A loyal community. A sold-out festival.
WhatsApp became the main conversion channel for the 2026 pre-sale, building on the previous year’s campaign.
< 1 hour
to sell out
Ready when sales opened
The festival sold out in under 60 minutes, with a personal shop ready for fans who had pre-registered.
+25%
reported year-on-year improvement
Building on the first pre-sale
After its first WhatsApp-driven pre-sale in 2025, Bontgenoten reported a further 25% improvement for the 2026 edition.
The takeaway
Make buying feel as familiar as the festival.
Bontgenoten’s approach worked because the buying experience matched the relationship it had already built. Its fans were ready to buy; WhatsApp gave them a direct path from invitation to ticket.
For organisers, the opportunity is to connect pre-registration, communication and checkout into one experience — and make it easy for loyal fans to follow through.
See Innercrowd in action.
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