KBYG (Know Before You Go): what it is, why it matters, and why PDFs aren't enough
KBYG stands for Know Before You Go. It's the packet of information every stakeholder needs before they arrive at a show — where to park, when to load in, what to bring, who to contact, what the weather call is. Done right, it prevents 80% of the show-day questions that otherwise hit the production radio.
The origin of KBYG
KBYG is borrowed from aviation — 'know before you fly' — and adapted to live events. Early festival KBYGs were single-page PDFs with the schedule, map, and a few FAQs.
Modern KBYG expects more. Six or more distinct personas need tailored information: guests, VIPs, artists, crew, vendors, sponsors, press. A single PDF either bloats (information overload) or under-serves (missing key details for a specific persona).
What belongs in a KBYG
The canonical KBYG sections are well-established — every big festival has them. A good digital KBYG supports the full taxonomy and scopes which ones appear per persona.
- Overview — the show summary, dates, venue, key contacts
- Schedule — doors, set times, load-in/out windows
- Set times — detailed, per stage, by day
- Timeline — minute-by-minute for the day of
- Credentials — who gets what type of pass, where to pick up
- Contacts — production, security, medical, transportation leads
- FAQ — persona-specific common questions
- SOPs — standard operating procedures for crew
- PPE — required personal protective equipment
- Radio — channel allocations for comms
- Resources — links, documents, maps
- Evacuation — emergency exits, muster points
- Fire safety — extinguisher locations, no-flame zones
- Accessibility — ADA parking, viewing areas, services
- Sustainability — waste, water stations, environmental initiatives
- Code of conduct — behavior expectations, reporting
Why role-scoping matters
A guest doesn't need radio channels. A crew member doesn't need ADA parking information. A sponsor needs to know where the activation tent is, not where the artist dressing rooms are.
If you send one KBYG to everyone, you overwhelm most and under-serve some. If you send three KBYGs, you spend the morning of show day explaining which one is current.
Role-scoped digital KBYG solves this: one canonical source, one CMS entry per project × persona, rendered appropriately for each viewer.
The Boarding Pass pattern
The Boarding Pass pattern — popularized by Black Coffee's 2025 tour KBYG (github.com/ghxstship/boardingpass) — treats the KBYG as an interactive, role-scoped, mobile-first website rather than a PDF.
Key innovations: tier 1–5 classification banners for venue zones, role-specific timelines, embedded radio channel allocations, offline-accessible on the crew phone.
The ATLVS Technologies suite adopts this pattern as the event guides module. One authoring flow in ATLVS CMS; six persona renders on portal + mobile, shared by <GuideView>. See /solutions/atlvs#guides.
Publish once, update anywhere
A PDF KBYG is frozen at the moment you export it. If the weather changes the load-in, you generate a new PDF, re-upload it, hope everyone refreshes — they won't.
A database-backed KBYG updates in place. The version published at /p/[slug]/guide is always current. Service-worker caching ensures the crew phone has the latest version next time it reconnects.