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Key takeaways
- Keep only the slots you plan to attend instead of the full lineup
- Add travel and break time as slots so day-of decisions are quick
- Use separate floors to compare stages (the free plan has one floor)
An official festival timetable packs every stage and every act onto one grid. That is accurate, but you will only attend roughly a quarter of it. On site, the only question that matters is where you go next, so reading the full grid slows you down.
Designing a festival timetable for yourself
Pull out the acts you want to see and lay them out as a single chronological run. Dropping the stage-by-stage columns in favour of one timeline reduces every decision to “what happens after this slot ends”. Paper, an edited screenshot, or a dedicated app all work — but if your plan is likely to change during the day, an app that recalculates times for you is easier to live with.
Ways to make a festival timetable easier to read
There are three common approaches.
| Method | Works well when | Weakness |
|---|---|---|
| Marking up the official image | You only have a few acts | Still hard to read on a small screen |
| Rebuilding it in a spreadsheet | You want to plan carefully | Day-of changes are manual |
| Using a timetable app | Your plan will change on the day | You have to enter the acts first |
The shared principle is to cut first. Colour-coding a grid that still contains every act you are skipping does not make it much more readable.
Building your personal timetable
Here is the flow in GIGDECK. You can create one event as a guest, without signing up.
- Name the event after the festival and day (e.g.
SUMMER FEST 2026 / DAY1) - Set the event start time to when you expect to arrive
- Add the acts you want to see, in time order, from the official timetable
- Enter each slot length — following start and end times are calculated for you
- Drag to reorder, and the times recalculate for the new order
There is no import that reads the official PDF or image, so the acts are entered by hand. Limited to the slots you actually plan to attend, that usually takes 10–20 minutes.
Add travel and breaks as slots
This is the main advantage of a personal version. Put stage-to-stage walks, food breaks, and merch queues in as slots alongside the acts.
Walk: GREEN → RED(10 min)Food break(30 min)Merch(20 min)
With those in place, “staying to the end of this set means missing the next one” becomes a number you can see in advance.
Comparing multiple stages
A single chronological list hides what is running on the other stages at the same time. If you also want that overview, split the stages into separate floors.
In GIGDECK the free plan includes one floor; comparing multiple stages side by side requires the Pro plan (up to 20 floors) or an Event Pass. If you rarely cross between stages, one chronological floor is easier to read on the day.
Sharing it with friends
You can share the finished timetable as a read-only AUDIENCE LINK. Anyone with the link can view it but cannot edit the event. Handing it to the people you are going with makes meeting points much easier to confirm.
If you want a QR code, paste the copied URL into any external QR generator.
Reading it on site
Festival grounds have congested mobile networks. A few things to check beforehand:
- Open the page once before you arrive — an already loaded view keeps displaying
- Syncing changes and fetching the current time both need an internet connection
- Keeping the screen on drains the battery, so bring a power bank
A personal timetable is a reference for when you are unsure, not a plan to follow exactly. Leaving some slack in it makes the day easier to adjust.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the trick to making a personal festival schedule?
- Keep only the sets you actually plan to see instead of copying the whole grid. Fewer rows is what makes it readable on a phone during the day.
- How do I account for walking between stages?
- Add travel and breaks as their own slots. Clashes you physically cannot make show up while you are still planning.
- Can I compare several stages side by side?
- Use separate floors for each stage. The free plan includes one floor.
- Can I share it with friends?
- Send them the read-only AUDIENCE LINK. They can see the same schedule without an account, and cannot edit it.
Try it with your own event
Guests can create one event without registering.