William Chris Vineyards · Events
When our event tickets actually sell, by type of event, so we know when a push matters and when a slow week is just a slow week.
Almost nothing we sell is sold a month out, and that is normal. Each event type has its own clock, and the clocks have barely moved in four years.
Release parties fill from the back. Half of all guests book inside the final two weeks, every release, since 2022. At 30 days out a Sunday is typically 14% booked. At 7 days it is 74%.
Member dinners sell at the announcement. Roughly nine in ten seats go within ten days of tickets opening, and 11 of the last 20 dinners sold out. After the first email there is little left to push.
Big ticketed parties (Hog & Goat, Spring Concert, Black-Eyed Pea, Rhone Rangers, Grape Punch) sit at 15% a month out, cross 50% three weeks out, and sell one ticket in five during the final week. City member events and mixers behave the same way, a little later.
| Event type | 30 days out | 14 days out | 7 days out | When the push matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Release party (GA) | 14% | 52% | 74% | Days 21 to 3 |
| Member dinners | 17%* | 90% | 96% | The announcement |
| Big ticketed parties | 15% | 61% | 79% | Days 21 to 3 |
| City member events | 6% | 65% | 84% | Days 14 to 3 |
| Member mixers at Hye | 0%* | 74% | 87% | Days 21 to 5 |
| Certification courses | 48% | 73% | 86% | Steady, from day 90 |
Percent of final tickets sold, median across events since Sep 2024 (release parties since 2022). *Dinners and mixers usually go on sale about 30 days out, so the 30-day figure mostly reflects whether tickets were open yet.
Release parties
Every Hye Society release Sunday since February 2022 follows the same curve. Bookings open five to six weeks out, sit quiet for the first two or three weeks, then climb steeply from three weeks out through the final 48 hours. About 5% of guests book the day before or day of.
Percent of final guests booked, by days before the event. 36 Sundays, Feb 2022 to Apr 2026, General Admission.
Hover for the median and typical range at each checkpoint. The steepest stretch is always days 21 to 3.
The curve has been stable while the room has grown. Median attendance per Sunday was about 620 guests in 2022 and 2023, 730 in 2025, and 810 across the two 2026 releases so far. A slow first three weeks is not a warning sign. A slow final two weeks would be.
General Admission guests booked, each release Sunday since 2022. Cancellations excluded. September 2026 shown as booked so far.
The paid Elevated experiences follow a front-loaded version of the same curve. Across 22 dates since 2024 they were 66% booked two weeks out and 80% at one week. Since September 2025 they have moved earlier still: 62% at three weeks, 81% at two weeks, 92% at ten days. Members who want the Elevated seat now grab it in the first week or two.
As of September 2, Sunday the 13th has 407 GA guests booked at 11 days out. A typical release is 62% booked at that point, so the 13th is pacing toward roughly 650 guests, in line with the 2025 releases and below the 825 and 830 of April. Sunday the 20th has 401 guests at 18 days out, where a typical release is 43% booked. That pace points toward a full house of 780 GA spots and probable slot sellouts. The Wednesday party on the 16th sold all 80 spots more than two weeks ahead. Watch the 13th; the 20th does not need help.
Ticketed events
Ticketed events since September 2024, grouped by how they behave. The shaded band is the middle half of events in that group; the line is the median. The mark on the top edge is when tickets typically went on sale.
Dinners are the outlier. Tickets open about 30 days out to a club-only audience with a set number of seats, and the announcement email does the work. Everything else is a public event with a bigger room, and the public buys late. Certification courses (Texas Wine Ambassador, WSET) are a different business: tickets sit open for five months, sell steadily, and cohorts finish about half full.
Benchmarks
Percent of final tickets sold at each checkpoint. The main number is the median. The small number is the worry line: a quarter of past events were below it and still finished fine, so being under it is a reason to add a push, not to panic.
| Event type | Events | Avg tickets | 30 days | 21 days | 14 days | 7 days | 3 days | Sold out |
|---|
Release party figures are guests booked, all 36 Sundays since 2022. Ticketed events are tickets sold, Sep 2024 to Aug 2026, events with at least 10 tickets, add-ons (kids, VIP tables, cigar pairings) excluded. "Sold out" means zero inventory left when the event ran.
Comms plan
A suggested rhythm for each type, week by week. Shaded weeks are where sends have historically lined up with the buying. Unshaded weeks are for awareness and patience.
Open bookings with the release announcement, then leave it alone. At four weeks out, 14% booked is normal. The selling happens from three weeks out through the final three days, and that is where the emails, texts and social should land. A "slots are filling" note at seven days and a last call at two days match how people actually buy.
Do not read the first three weeks as demand. Read the 14-day number.
The announcement is the whole campaign. Three in four dinners are at least 76% sold three weeks out, and most are effectively full within ten days of tickets opening. If a dinner is under 76% at three weeks, one "last seats" email at two weeks closes it. Below that, hold the inventory for walk-ins and the club team.
Opening early is for awareness, not sales. Expect 15% at a month out and do not chase it. Nearly 30% of tickets sell between three weeks and one week out, and another fifth in the final week; the sellouts (Hog & Goat 2026, Spring Concert 2026, Black-Eyed Pea 2026) all closed in the last day or two. Reminders at seven days and two days do the most work. Expect 10 to 30 walk-up tickets on the day.
These are the events where the last two weeks are the whole game: 65% at two weeks, 84% at one week, and none of the five have sold out. Two sends in the final fortnight, plus a local reminder the week of, is where the remaining 15% comes from. A save-the-date six weeks out helps people plan travel but does not sell tickets.
Mixers land between dinners and parties: two-thirds sold by three weeks out, 87% by one week. The announcement carries most of it; one reminder at two weeks and a logistics note the week of is enough.
Courses sell slowly over months and fill about half their seats, so they reward a steady drumbeat rather than a burst: about half the seats are sold a month out and a quarter sell in the final two weeks. Monthly mentions plus pushes at four and two weeks match the curve.
Method and caveats
Ticket data is every Commerce7 event-ticket record, grouped by product, using the ticket's purchase time against the event date. Cancelled and refunded tickets are excluded from the curves. Capacity is tickets sold plus inventory remaining, so a product whose inventory was raised or lowered mid-sale will read slightly off. Release parties are Commerce7 reservations on the Hye Society General Admission experience, counted in guests, with cancellations removed; booking time is the reservation's paid or created time, whichever is earlier, which handles records migrated in January 2024.
Percentages are of each event's final count, not its capacity, so they describe rhythm rather than sellout risk; the benchmark table carries sellout counts separately. Group medians smooth over real differences between events. Ticket-product data starts in January 2024 (earlier products were imported without purchase history), so ticketed types use events from September 2024 onward; the release-party reservation history runs back to 2020, of which 2022 onward is used. Dinner and mixer percentages before 30 days mostly reflect on-sale timing, not demand.
The Klaviyo "Confirmed Event Ticket" feed mirrors the same Commerce7 tickets from November 2024 and was not used separately. The September 2026 release-party tracker is the live view of the current release; this page is the historical baseline behind it.