Paid Off the Top · Before Any Festival Pool
Per-Ticket Obligations to Outside Parties
~$85 / ticket blended
Every ticket sale accrues these contractual obligations before money enters the festival pool. At break-even ticket sales, the venue, Subphonic Events, and The Dome receive 100% of what they have earned so far. Under the target ticket mix, that is about $12,525 from tickets by confirmation, plus any $250 fees from rented cabins only. Total off-top ticket obligations including Stripe and affiliate assumptions are about $13,573 at confirmation and about $22,042 at ticket sellout.
- Venue · $10 / day per ticket
- Subphonic Events · $37 / ticket
baseline stage production; lights/visuals if GoldRushAV handles sound
- The Dome · $7 / ticket
- Stripe · 2.9% + $0.30 / txn
- Affiliate Codes · $5 / ticket
applied on ~30% of tickets
| Threshold | Tickets | Venue | Subphonic Events | The Dome | Total |
|---|
| First funding marker | Variable | Actual accrued | Actual accrued | Actual accrued | Actual accrued |
| Sound / operating reserve marker | ~245 | $8,502 | $9,065 | $1,715 | $19,282 |
| Ticket sellout | 270 | $9,370 | $9,990 | $1,890 | $21,250 |
Venue totals include modeled rented-cabin fees: $250 per rented cabin only, with 4 rented cabins modeled at sellout. Unrented cabins do not create a venue cabin fee. These are cumulative expected earnings at each threshold; the confirmation payout happens at break-even, then a second per-ticket payee deposit/payment happens 15 days before the event.
Tickets only. Addons (Car Camping, RV, Cabins, Early Arrival) and merch do not carry the per-ticket Subphonic Events or Dome obligations. The car-camping inventory is split into low-clearance and high-clearance passes, but both are still $50 add-ons. Addons only have Stripe processing fees taken off (and cabins also carry the venue's $250-per-cabin fee), and the rest flows into the active pool.
Tier I · $0 → $25,772 progress · Funds the marker
What it takes to make this real
Pool target: $11,700
After accrued off-top obligations are accounted for, the remaining ticket and modeled add-on dollars fill this confirmation pool — Legal/Insurance & Permits, on-site medical coverage, the $1,000 Headliner Guarantee, $2,000 security coverage, and the start of a Contingency Reserve that keeps growing all the way to sellout. Under the live ticket mix plus observed add-on attachment, the pool fills to $11,700 by the time campaign progress reaches $25,772. Clearing it triggers 100% payout of accrued earnings so far to the venue, Subphonic Events, and The Dome, and funds the intended-venue deposit path first.
$0 / $11,700
0% to confirmation
What the $11,700 confirmation pool covers
- Legal / Insurance & Permits
Wook Events LLC formation before ticket sales · $70 CA filing split by Josh and Garrett · later $800 CA franchise tax · liability + event insurance · county and fire permits. Held lean to the baseline; if any line item runs over, the Contingency Reserve below absorbs it.~$2,100
- EMT / medical on-site
Provided through a licensed and insured source.~$2,000
-
Security Coverage · fully locked at confirmation
One dedicated on-call licensed security guard on site, provided by someone from our community who is familiar with festival security, holds a valid California guard card, and operates through a licensed and insured company. Volunteer teams support 24-hour gate presence and fire patrol, but do not replace licensed security. We lock this the moment we confirm, so the full $2,000 needs to be in the pool by then.
~$2,000
-
Headliner Guarantee
A $1,000 floor reserved at break-even so the headliner conversation can be secured without pretending the slot is a national-name expansion play. The guarantee counts toward that artist's final slot pay. Depending on the final time slot, the sellout ceiling is expected to land between the daytime and Bowl evening slot ceilings.
~$1,000
- Subtotal flat fixed costs~$7,100
-
Contingency Reserve — deep safety net
The festival's safety net for true unexpected events (major weather hits, vendor true-ups, sanitation/waste servicing, late-stage permit changes). Builds in Tier 1 from $0 → $4,600 — and continues growing through Tier 2 to $5,620 at sellout (270 tix), where it tops off.
~$4,600
- Confirmation pool total$11,700
Modeled Add-On Revenue · current take rates
The add-on revenue that helps the math close
~$8,620 net
The public ticket waterfall assumes about 54 early-arrival passes (20%), 75 total car-camping passes (75%) across 50 low-clearance and 50 high-clearance passes, 5 RV passes (50%), and 4 total rented cabins (50%). The venue receives $250 per rented cabin only; unrented cabins do not create a venue cabin fee. At sellout, that modeled add-on layer adds about $9,950 gross and about $8,620 net after Stripe and rented-cabin venue fees. This add-on net is included in the sellout waterfall while the $25,772 confirmation trigger remains based on ticket sales.
Tier 2 — Building the experience as tickets sell
Once the first funding marker is reached, every fund below starts growing toward its sellout ceiling. Tier I prices flip to Tier II at that marker and stay there through sellout at 270 tickets. Artist pay scales steadily by weighted slot ceilings, so higher-weight time slots receive proportionally more as sales move. The $7,000 Sound Upgrade / Operating Reserve receives a front-loaded Tier II allocation and is modeled as reserve-ready around 245 tickets when the current add-on assumption holds; without add-on sales, that trigger slides later. It becomes a sound upgrade only if the model is holding cleanly and operating needs are covered. Every other fund keeps scaling all the way to sellout.
If hidden or underestimated required costs appear during the sales cycle, future ticket pricing may be adjusted or new tiers may be introduced so the event stays aligned with required obligations. Completed purchases are not repriced retroactively.
Artist Pay (all 64 slots) · weighted scaling$0 → $8,500 (sellout)
$8,500
The working plan reserves 80 total artist/crew/staff/volunteer spots inside the 350-person cap. The music budget still models 64 ticket-funded artist slots — Bowl Daytime (28) + Bowl Evening (8) + K Lodge Afters (28) — with the remaining allocation used for production, hospitality, operations, volunteers, and load in/out. At 270-ticket sellout, the artist fund tops off at $8,500 total under the current add-on assumptions. Each slot has a weight; its ceiling equals slot weight / 11,980 × $8,500, then it scales with the current artist pool. Those 80 holds are an intentional economic contribution to the event, roughly equivalent to about $13,500 of foregone paid-ticket capacity at the modeled average ticket value.
$0 / $8,5000%
Sound Upgrade / Operating Reserve · reserve-ready around 245 tix (~91%)$0 → $7,000 conditional reserve
$7,000
Front-loaded after the first funding marker up to roughly 245 tickets sold (~91% of cap) under the current add-on model. This is a conditional reserve, not an automatic contract spend. If the model is holding cleanly, required operating costs are covered, and the team decides the upgrade is responsible, GoldRushAV out of Nevada City may handle the full sound system and serious low-end coverage. If sales land just under the full threshold, add-ons underperform, or operating needs are more urgent, this money may be repurposed to experience and operating expenses. Until the first funding marker is reached, the bucket stays at $0 — Subphonic Events' standard rig handles baseline audio.
$0 / $7,0000%
Contingency Reserve$4,600 at confirmation → $5,620 at sellout
$5,620
The festival's deep safety net. Built first in Tier 1 ($0 → $4,600 by the first funding marker) and then keeps growing through Tier 2 to $5,620 at sellout. Experience & Ops (next card) is the primary day-of operational reserve; this Contingency sits underneath it as a deeper backup. Current security, medical, sanitation, waste, insurance, and permit budgets are intentionally lean, so this reserve may absorb vendor, sanitation, waste-removal, porta-servicing, or permit true-ups rather than remain untouched.
$0 / $5,6200%
Experience & Ops · Primary Reserve$0 → $1,275 (sellout)
$1,275
Primary day-of operational reserve. Barriers, decor, signage, crew meals, on-site ops, and the first-line cushion for unexpected costs the weekend throws at us. Starts at $0 when the first funding marker is reached and scales to $1,275 at sellout — bigger crowd, bigger ops budget.
$0 / $1,2750%
Ambiance & Workshops$0 → $2,125 (sellout)
$2,125
Installations, interactive art, non-music performers, workshops, and the visual texture of the whole weekend. Starts at $0 when the first funding marker is reached and scales to $2,125 at sellout. Baseline stage production runs through Subphonic Events; if the conditional Sound Upgrade is approved, GoldRushAV handles the full sound system and Subphonic Events focuses fully on lights and visuals. The Dome is a tranquil 24-foot geodesic sensory lounge, while K Lodge Afters use Keith Sitterly's Soundboks system, lights, lasers, and haze for a lower-energy wind-down environment.
$0 / $2,1250%
After the event · Crown The Foundation + Contributor Shares + 2027 SeedFunded entirely from surplus — not pre-budgeted
post-event allocation
This isn't a planned bucket — there's no pre-event ceiling for it. It gets funded from any surplus that exists once the event is over: budgets we didn't fully spend, addon revenue beyond what was needed, merch sales (since merch isn't budgeted against). After the books close, distributable surplus is split into three pools:
- Crown The Foundation — receives a fixed 20% cut of distributable surplus.
- Contributor Shares — divided among the people who gave to make this happen at reduced cost: artists who took a lower fee, volunteers who gave their time, equipment loans, friends-of-festival who showed up for less than market rate. A way to say thanks with real money once we know there's room.
- 2027 Seed Fund — directly seeds next year's festival so we start from a stronger base. Bigger seed = bigger artist guarantees we can offer next year, before tickets even go live.
Policy: close the books first, hold back 10% of net surplus capped at $2,000 for late fees/taxes/chargebacks, then pay 20% of distributable surplus to Crown The Foundation. The remaining 80% splits 50% Contributor Shares / 50% 2027 Seed until the seed fund reaches $2,500. After that, each additional surplus dollar splits 20% Crown The Foundation / 56% Contributor Shares / 24% 2027 Seed. Contributor Shares require pre-event documented contribution credits: volunteer hours, artist discounts, equipment loans, vendor discounts, and critical responsibilities. No Contributor Share payout exceeds that person's documented credit unless all documented contributors have already been made whole.
