Build and Validate the Running Order
Schedule acts by stage, day, and time, then use validation, readiness checks, locks, holds, and review tools to build a version the team can trust.
Article guidance
The running order is where programming becomes an operational schedule. Stage Manager can help prevent impossible placements, but it depends on accurate act availability, stage windows, set lengths, changeovers, and production readiness.
Build the draft
- Open Running order: Use the Stage Manager event tabs.
- Choose the event day and view density: Use compact, normal, or expanded views depending on whether you need overview or detail.
- Place acts from the queue: Use drag and drop, click placement, or keyboard controls depending on the device and situation.
- Read validation before saving: Clash previews and blocked-action hints explain overlaps, stage windows, holds, curfews, repeat buffers, and other hard blockers.
- Watch production advisories: Missing contact, rider, technical, availability, contract, or review information may not block placement, but it should still be resolved before publish.
- Adjust the slot: Move, resize, change stage, set status, lock, unlock, cancel, or remove while keeping validation visible.
- Save deliberate changes: Use unsaved-change warnings, undo, redo, and recent draft history to avoid losing work during manual edits.
Use locks, holds, and bulk tools
- Use stage holds for soundchecks, rehearsals, crew breaks, ceremonies, curfews, or blackout periods that should appear on the timeline.
- Lock headliners, fixed sponsor slots, ceremonies, or crew-dependent times that should not move during generated or bulk changes.
- Use shift tools when a whole day or one stage needs to move earlier or later after a timing decision changes.
- Use changeover templates when most unlocked slots on a selected day need the same reset time.
- Copy a running-order day only when the target day has matching lineup rows and the copied structure is a useful starting point.
- Save running-order templates for repeatable day patterns, then review skipped stages or missing acts before applying them to another event.
Use schedule health
- The health rail highlights selected-day conflicts, queued acts, production-readiness actions, closed stages, and publish readiness.
- Conflict focus and detail controls help you inspect busy days without changing the underlying schedule or validation rules.
- Conflict hints explain the affected slot, blocker, timing gap, overlap, buffer, or shared-resource problem where SmartGig can identify it.
- Direct actions can open the affected slot, arm a queued act for placement, or move toward a valid time where supported.
- Generated scheduling can help place unscheduled acts around availability and constraints, but generated results still need human review before use.
Common conflicts
- The same act is booked into overlapping slots on one or more stages.
- The same act is booked again before its repeat-performance buffer has passed.
- The stage is closed or outside its day window.
- A slot would end after the stage curfew.
- The act is unavailable for the selected date or time window.
- The slot clashes with another performance or its required changeover.
- Two acts list the same shared crew member, host, DJ, backline item, playback rig, vehicle, or production resource and either overlap or leave too little handover time.
- A high-energy act is placed on a noise-limited stage and needs review.
- The act has technical profile requirements but the selected stage is missing PA, monitor, power, stage-size, access, or headliner capacity details.
- The item has invalid timing, such as an end before a start or a run outside the event day.
- Production readiness is weak even though the schedule placement itself is technically valid.
Before publishing
- Clear hard conflicts first.
- Review production advisories, missing riders, technical gaps, contract issues, and overdue review tasks.
- Check that stage flow, crowd movement, crew breaks, curfews, and changeover pressure make sense in the real venue.
- Confirm the version is ready for exports, crew links, live view, and public or performer-facing communication where used.