# Events Overview

Section: Events · Page: https://artsvp.com/docs/events/overview

(Plans: All plans)

An event is the heart of ARTSVP: one bookable happening with its own dates,
capacity, tickets, and public booking page. A private view, a press morning, a
month of timed entry, each is an event, and the **Events** area lists every one
in your current space.

## The life of an event

An event begins as a **draft**, visible only to your team, while you shape its
schedule, tickets, and page. **Publish** it and it goes live: guests can see it,
book it, and start appearing on its guest list. Once its dates have passed it
becomes a **past** event. **Archive event** tucks it out of your active lists
without deleting anything (and you can **Unarchive event** later).
**Cancel event** calls the occasion off: bookings stop, and live bookings are
cancelled.

| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| **Draft** | Not yet published. Guests cannot see or book it. |
| **Published** | Live and taking bookings on its public page. |
| **Past** | The event's dates are over. |
| **Cancelled** | The occasion is off. Bookings have stopped, and live bookings were cancelled. |
| **Archived** | Tucked away from your active lists, data intact. |

Upcoming published events also carry a countdown (*"Today"*, *"Tomorrow"*,
*"In 5 days"*) and show *"Live"* while the event is underway.

## Inside an event

Open any event and its pages line up in the sub-navigation:

| Page | What it is for |
|---|---|
| **Overview** | The event at a glance: guest stats, latest bookings, capacity, quick actions. Drafts continue setup from here. |
| **Guestlist** | The live guest list: invitations, bookings, statuses, and check-in. See [Guest List](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/guest-list). |
| **Promote** | Booking links, QR codes and posters, social sharing, and sending invites. See [Publishing and sharing](https://artsvp.com/docs/events/publishing-and-sharing). |
| **Settings** | How the event runs, in tabs: Details, Availability, Ticketing, Emails, Design, Advanced, and Developer. |
| **Insights** | Booking and attendance analytics: live during the event, a report after it. |
| **Preview** | The public booking page, exactly as guests will see it. |

Most days have a rhythm to them: build in **Settings**, share from **Promote**,
watch **Guestlist**, and read **Insights** once the dust settles.

## Starting, repeating, retiring

- **New Event** opens the create-event wizard, a guided path from blank page to
  published. See [Creating events](https://artsvp.com/docs/events/creating-events).
- **Duplicate event**, from the event card menu, copies an event's whole setup
  into a new draft. A monthly private view or a recurring fair format only
  needs building once.
- **Archive event** retires an event from your active lists without deleting
  anything. Archiving does not cancel existing bookings or notify guests.
  Archived events appear under **Events** → **Archived** (on narrow screens,
  look in **More views**). Open the event card menu to reach **Guestlist**
(  not available on drafts) or choose **Unarchive event** to bring it back.

### Cancelling an event

**Cancel event** is for a published or past event that will not go ahead. It
does not appear on drafts, archived events, or an event you have already
cancelled. After you confirm, the event stops accepting bookings, its live
bookings (confirmed, waitlisted, and register-interest requests you haven't
answered) are cancelled, scheduled reminder emails stop, and it sits under
the **Cancelled** tab on **Events**.
Requests you already rejected stay as they are.

On **Events**, open the event card menu and choose **Cancel event**. When anyone
it could email has an email address, cancelling takes three steps:

1. **Guests** shows the event you are cancelling and how many live bookings it
   has, and asks whether to email your guests: **Yes, write them a message** or
   **No, cancel without emailing**. A Yes emails the booker on each live booking
   and the guests on confirmed bookings who have their own email address. Under
   **Also email**, tick **Invited guests who haven't replied** or **Guests who
   declined** to email them too. Each box shows how many it adds.
2. **Message** is the email, sent from your organisation to everyone step 1
   chose. Edit the subject and message, and use **Personalise** to insert
   variables such as the guest's name. If you choose not to email, this step
   drops out and **Confirm** becomes step 2.
3. **Confirm** lists exactly what will happen and shows the **Message on the
   event page**, which everyone opening the event, a booking link or an
   invitation will see. Click it to change it. Type the event name, then choose
   **Cancel event and email** your bookers (**Cancel event and send** when
   anyone else is emailed too), or **Cancel event** if you chose not to email.
   The counts follow the **Also email** boxes.

When nobody can be emailed, only the **Confirm** step appears.
Nothing changes until you confirm: **Keep event**, **Back** or closing the
window leaves the event as it is. Afterwards, the confirmation says how many
bookings were cancelled and how many emails are on their way. Guests' replies go
to your organisation's support email.

Invitations stay as they are. Anyone who opens an invitation to a cancelled
event lands on its page, which shows your cancelled message. Past the bookers,
everyone gets one email per address: a guest at their booker's address, or an
invited guest who also booked, gets only the booking's email. A guest on a
booking gets their booking's details with their own name. **Invited** and
**Declined** guests are emailed only when you tick their box, and anyone who
unsubscribed from your invitations gets none. **Pending** guests, and invited
guests without an email address, aren't emailed, and **Confirm** says how many
there are. Guests your partners invited through a portal aren't emailed either.
Personalise variables that belong to a booking, such as its reference, stay
blank for invited guests; the event's name and start fill in. To change the message on the event page
later, open the event's **Settings** → **Advanced** → **Messaging** →
**Cancel Messages** → **Event is cancelled**.

A cancelled event is unpublished for good. It can't be published again, and it
takes no new bookings, even from a booking page someone still had open. To run
the same event again, **Duplicate event** and publish the copy.

The public page, every booking link, and every invitation show that cancelled
message. Web tickets stay the same size, tagged **Cancelled**, with nothing to
scan. Partners see the event as **Cancelled** and cannot invite or copy a link
for it. See [Bookings](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/bookings#tickets),
[ONE Pass](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/onepass),
[Invitations](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/invitations), and
[Using Your Portal](https://artsvp.com/docs/guest-management/using-your-portal).

One thing to be aware of: cancelling cannot be undone, bookings without an email
address are cancelled without a message, and refunds are never automatic. Issue
any refunds from your Stripe dashboard. Archiving is the reversible choice when
you only want the event out of your active lists.

---

Keep reading: [Creating events](https://artsvp.com/docs/events/creating-events) ·
[Dates and availability](https://artsvp.com/docs/events/dates-and-availability) ·
[Publishing and sharing](https://artsvp.com/docs/events/publishing-and-sharing) ·
[Insights](https://artsvp.com/docs/events/insights)

---