How do you plan an outdoor event during wildfire smoke?

You've sold the tickets, the stage is going up, and buyers are asking whether the smoke will affect the show. The fire might be nowhere near your venue. Your problem is deciding whether the event you promised can still happen, and telling people while they can still change their plans.

Your plan for wildfire smoke should connect local air-quality advice to an actual operating decision. Agree who watches conditions, what requires a change, and who can delay, relocate, postpone or cancel. Then check that the alternative you announce has the space, staff and conditions to work.

Don't leave that decision until doors. By then, your audience may be queuing outdoors and your crew may have worked through hours of smoke. The useful planning happens earlier, when you can still stop unnecessary travel, change supplier instructions and explain what happens to tickets.

This guide is for operators of paid outdoor concerts, festivals, performances and similar public events. It uses current U.S. public-health sources to explain the decisions, with a clearly identified Washington State example. Use the authorities, worker rules and emergency instructions that apply where your event takes place. The example numbers are not a worldwide cancellation rule.

Start with the event you would actually be running

The first thing you want to do is describe the exposure across the whole visit. A seated outdoor performance, an energetic dance event and an all-day sporting programme ask different things of the audience. Your crew's day starts before any of them. Write down when each group arrives, what they do outside and when they can leave.

The CDC explains that wildfire smoke can affect people far from the fire and can make anyone sick. Some people face greater risks, including children, pregnant people and people with certain existing health conditions. That makes the distance to the flames a poor way to judge whether your outdoor programme can proceed.

Keep the fire emergency question separate. A smoke plan does not replace evacuation arrangements, road-closure information or instructions from emergency authorities. If an official instruction requires people to leave or avoid the area, follow it. Don't use a reassuring air-quality reading to argue against an instruction about a different danger.

Now walk through the event as a buyer. They may wait at a shuttle stop, join a gate queue, stand through the performance and wait outside again afterwards. A promise that the main set is shorter says little about those other periods. The plan needs to address the parts of the visit you organise, including arrivals when admission is delayed.

Look at your programme before deciding which changes are realistic. Removing an outdoor workshop might be straightforward. Moving the headline performance into a room that cannot accommodate its buyers is a different proposition. Be honest about which change preserves the purchased experience and which requires you to explain a substantially different offer.

We'll use a fictional event called Harbour Arts Night throughout this guide. It has sold 600 tickets for an outdoor evening performance. There is a nearby hall with a confirmed event capacity of 180 people, but no agreement to move the full show there. These are invented planning facts, not a case study or capacity advice.

For this event, the hall immediately raises a useful question. What could it actually provide? You might be able to arrange a limited temporary waiting area after a separate assessment. It cannot accommodate all 600 buyers at once. Writing "move indoors if smoky" in the operating plan would hide that problem until people arrived.

Record the smoke hazard in your event risk assessment, with the relevant people and actions. Keep this smoke plan specific enough to tell the gate supervisor, supplier and customer-support team what changes for them. A broad entry saying that weather is monitored won't do that work.

Give monitoring and decisions to named people

Choose a person to monitor the agreed sources and a deputy who can take over. They need time to do it, access to the information and a direct way to interrupt event control. Someone settling artist invoices while answering gate calls is unlikely to give a changing smoke situation the attention it needs.

The monitoring person reports conditions and the implications of the agreed plan. The event decision maker coordinates the response with the venue and responsible safety advisers. Name who can stop admission, who can stop outdoor activity and who can authorise the customer message. Agree urgent authority if the usual decision maker cannot be reached.

Those roles should connect directly. A report that reaches a group chat is not yet an instruction to the gate. Have the responsible supervisor acknowledge the instruction and confirm what has happened. Event control should be able to tell whether admission has stopped, rather than assuming someone saw the message.

Keep commercial approvals clear as well. The person who can approve another vehicle or an indoor venue payment may be different from the person who must stop an unsafe activity. Agree spending limits and contacts in advance so a necessary response doesn't stall while staff search for the finance lead.

Your decision maker should hear conflicting information, too. If the venue says the hall is unavailable but the ticketing team is drafting a relocation announcement, someone needs to stop that announcement. Give people permission to report that a proposed alternative is incomplete. A confident update can create more problems than a careful acknowledgement that a decision is still being made.

Record who is responsible during setup, public hours and removal. If monitoring transfers between shifts, the incoming person needs the current advice, recent readings, unresolved questions and next review time. They should explicitly accept the role. Don't let both shifts believe the other is still watching.

For Harbour Arts Night, assign an event duty manager as decision maker, a separate smoke monitor and a named deputy for each. The venue manager confirms indoor availability. The transport lead confirms passenger arrangements. The customer-support lead prepares the buyer update from the decision record. These are example roles; a small team may combine duties where people can still carry them out.

Try the arrangement with the organiser unavailable. Ask the deputy to explain the next action after a worsening forecast, a failed data feed or a request to delay opening. If the answer is always "call the founder", there is still a decision missing from the plan.

Choose the air-quality information before smoke arrives

Use your local air-quality and public-health authorities to agree the sources relevant to your site. Record the location being measured, the time of the observation and what the displayed number describes. Two screenshots can appear to disagree because they refer to different places, pollutants or periods.

In the U.S., AirNow recommends its Fire and Smoke Map during wildfire smoke events. The map includes fine-particle pollution information, trends and smoke outlooks where available. AirNow explains that its general dial may display a different pollutant, so it may not describe smoke conditions in the way you expect.

The Air Quality Index, usually shortened to AQI, communicates air-quality health concern. PM2.5 means fine particles that are a major concern in wildfire smoke. You don't need to become an air-quality scientist to run the event, but your plan does need to specify which information your advisers want the team to use.

The EPA explains the difference between AQI forecasts and current conditions shown using NowCast. A daily fine-particle forecast predicts a 24-hour average. NowCast uses several hours of recent data to describe current air quality. A forecast for the day and the current display therefore answer related but different questions.

Ask your advisers how they want those sources combined. A current improvement doesn't settle what conditions may be during the show. An adverse forecast can require earlier action because people are about to travel. The monitoring record should preserve both pieces of information instead of replacing an inconvenient forecast with the latest favourable screenshot.

Agree what happens if the chosen source is unavailable or appears unrepresentative of the site. Identify a fallback source and the person who can interpret uncertainty. Don't let a blank map become permission to continue. Equally, don't invent a technical correction yourself because a nearby sensor gives a different result.

If you're adding site equipment, have the relevant specialist specify its purpose, placement and interpretation. A sensor bought online doesn't automatically become an approved event decision system. Decide who maintains it, what happens when it fails and how its readings relate to the authority's information before staff depend on it.

Use a short monitoring record with the source, location, observation time, forecast period, advice received and action taken. Save enough detail to explain a decision later. A photograph of a coloured map without its location or time may be difficult to interpret when you review the event.

Keep the current record accessible to the people making decisions without distributing unnecessary personal information. Reports that someone needs medical assistance belong in the appropriate response process. They shouldn't become a list of diagnoses in the general smoke log or the supplier briefing.

Agree action rules with local advisers

The plan needs conditions that produce action. "Keep an eye on it" is too vague once admission is underway. Ask the appropriate local advisers to help define when you prepare a change, when outdoor activity stops or cannot open, and what would be needed before it could resume.

There are published examples, but read their scope carefully. Spokane Regional Health District describes Washington recommendations for cancelling outdoor events. At a forecast AQI of 151 to 200, it says to consider cancellation. It reports the state recommendation to cancel when the AQI is, or is forecast to be, 201 or above.

Those are Washington public-health recommendations, not a universal legal threshold. They also do not mean that an event below 151 is suitable for everyone or that an organiser should wait until 201 to act. Use the current advice for your location, audience and activity, including any applicable requirements or more protective decisions.

For each agreed action rule, record:

• The source and location used, including whether the rule concerns current conditions, a forecast or an official instruction.

• The affected work or public activity and the condition requiring preparation or action.

• The person who initiates the response and the deputy who can act.

• What the gate, programme, transport and support teams must do.

• The time and resources needed to carry out that response.

• Who checks completion and what is required before any resumption.

Keep an advance decision deadline alongside the health-related rule. Your supplier might need an instruction before dispatch. Buyers may leave home well before the programme starts. Those timings can require you to decide while the forecast still contains uncertainty. Waiting for certainty can remove the alternatives you originally intended to offer.

For Harbour Arts Night, imagine the team agrees an update at noon for a 6pm opening. Noon is a fictional communications commitment, not a medically safe interval. The team can act earlier if conditions or instructions require it. If the event's agreed rule is met at 10am, the noon announcement slot doesn't justify two more hours of silence.

Prepare the response in enough detail that it can happen. If delaying admission is one option, where do early arrivals wait? If the answer is an exposed pavement, ask whether the delay is actually useful. You may need to prevent travel or announce postponement rather than accumulate an audience outside a closed gate.

Agree resumption with the same care as stopping. The responsible advisers should specify the evidence and conditions needed; the operational leads must confirm that staff, venue arrangements and transport are still available. One improved reading doesn't restore a cancelled supplier duty or make a changed programme deliverable.

Your outdoor event weather plan should use compatible authority and communication arrangements. Keep smoke-specific sources and actions visible within that wider coordination. Staff shouldn't have to choose between two documents that give different people the final instruction.

Check an indoor alternative before offering it

A roof doesn't tell you whether a space provides cleaner air or whether it can host your event. Ask the building manager and appropriate specialists what the indoor conditions can be, how they will be checked and what operation is possible with the expected occupancy. Obtain permission to use the space for the hours and purpose you need.

The EPA's indoor air filtration guidance explains how suitable filters and portable air cleaners can reduce smoke particles indoors. That guidance concerns homes. For a public event, have the building's responsible specialists assess the actual room, equipment and occupancy. Don't copy a household equipment recommendation into a crowd plan and call the building suitable.

Check the whole indoor operation. You still need accessible entry, sufficient toilets, exits, power, staffing and a programme that can be delivered there. Discuss cooling and ventilation with the building team rather than instructing staff to change systems themselves. An indoor alternative needs assessment for its actual use, including other health and safety requirements.

Harbour Arts Night's 180-person hall has 420 fewer places than the 600 tickets sold. That comparison alone rules it out as a simultaneous replacement venue for the full audience. It doesn't establish whether the hall is a suitable cleaner-air space for any smaller group; that is a separate question for the people assessing it.

Rotating everyone through it isn't an automatic solution. What happens to the people waiting outside, how long does each group stay, and what happens to the performance they bought? You would need a genuinely workable, assessed arrangement and clear buyer options. A room's existence cannot answer those questions on its own.

If another full-size venue is available, confirm the booking and activation deadline. Check whether its layout, performance permissions, accessible facilities and travel arrangements support the revised event. Get the production supplier to confirm what can actually move and how long that takes. Tell the buyer about meaningful changes before asking them to accept the alternative.

Also distinguish an emergency destination from a replacement show venue. A building might have an agreed role in a particular response without being available for an evening's entertainment. Preserve that arrangement in the emergency plan. Don't fill space needed for another purpose because somebody describes it loosely as the backup hall.

Make temporary waiting arrangements conditional on verified suitability, capacity and staffing. Include a response when those conditions are not met. If you cannot provide the alternative you planned, the operating decision needs to change. The buyer message must follow the confirmed arrangement, even when an earlier draft promised something more convenient.

Include workers, suppliers and performers in the plan

The audience might spend an evening at the event. Your production crew may be there for setup, rehearsals, the show and removal. Cancelling public admission doesn't automatically resolve their exposure, especially if the next instruction is to dismantle everything immediately.

NIOSH's wildfire smoke guidance for outdoor workers recommends measures such as relocating or rescheduling work, reducing strenuous activity and providing breaks away from smoke. It also explains that required workplace respirator use needs a comprehensive respiratory protection programme under applicable U.S. OSHA requirements. NIOSH notes that filtering facepiece respirators do not protect against gases such as carbon monoxide. Worker arrangements need their own assessment and the rules for the event's jurisdiction.

Discuss those arrangements with each employer and contractor before the build. Who decides to stop outdoor loading? Who tells a supplier not to dispatch? What can remain secured until removal can resume? Your supplier needs enough notice and information to change instructions to its staff, rather than learning through a public cancellation post.

Review the staffing consequences of every alternative. Moving admission indoors may alter security positions and customer assistance. Delaying a performance may run beyond a worker's booked shift. A relocation can require people at both the old and new sites until buyers have been redirected. Price those duties and confirm availability.

Make it easy for a worker to report a concern through their supervisor and the agreed safety process. Don't assume the absence of complaints establishes suitable conditions. The monitoring and assessment arrangements should continue even when everyone is focused on finishing a job before the truck arrives.

Give performers the same confirmed operating information as production. They need to know who controls soundcheck, whether outdoor rehearsal is proceeding and when a decision will be reviewed. The artist's willingness to perform doesn't settle conditions for crew or audience. Contract discussions and safety decisions need coordination without one substituting for the other.

Respirators also need careful communication. AirNow says cloth masks do not protect against wildfire smoke and N95 respirators can provide protection. That does not make handing out masks a substitute for an event decision or an appropriate solution for every person. Follow the relevant health and workplace advice rather than offering a blanket promise of protection.

Have the medical lead define the on-site response to someone who feels unwell, including escalation through local emergency arrangements. Customer-facing staff should know how to get that help. They should not diagnose symptoms, decide whose condition is serious enough or assure someone that staying is harmless.

The same care applies after a cancellation. Confirm what work stops, what essential tasks remain and who assesses how they can be completed. Tell suppliers when they should expect the next instruction. "The show is off" is incomplete if drivers and contractors are already waiting for access.

Work backwards from travel and supplier commitments

The final decision deadline is rarely just the opening time. Write down when choices begin to disappear. That includes the last point to retain an alternative venue, dispatch transport, change a production order or reach most buyers before they travel. Use actual supplier answers and audience travel information where available.

For the fictional Harbour Arts Night, suppose a supplier needs its dispatch instruction by 11am, the public update is promised at noon, and some buyers expect to travel from 1pm. The team cannot use the noon update as its first internal discussion. It needs enough time beforehand to make the decision, brief the supplier and prepare accurate public information.

Now ask what happens if the forecast changes after that update. Your noon message should state the current decision and explain when another update is due where relevant. It shouldn't imply that conditions cannot change again. Continue monitoring through the operating phases covered by your plan.

Consider buyers who are already travelling, too. Some may have longer journeys or accommodation bookings. Provide a way to ask practical questions, and identify what support your event can actually provide. Don't promise to reimburse travel costs before checking what you owe and what you can offer. Give accurate information and have the team apply the reviewed booking arrangements.

Confirm the transport response before telling everyone to leave. The normal return timetable may begin after the show, while a smoke-related change could send people out much earlier. Ask the transport lead what service is available, where people wait and who remains responsible until the agreed arrangements are completed.

If authorities give urgent instructions, those instructions take priority over your ordinary communications schedule. The team should already know how to interrupt programming and admissions. A prepared contact list and message structure help, but the actual instruction must match the situation rather than a script written for a slower postponement.

Keep a record of the decision and its reasons. Note the official information, advice, alternatives checked, actions authorised and time of communication. This helps the next shift understand what happened and supports later supplier or insurance discussions. Recording a decision is useful; it doesn't replace carrying it out.

Where uncertainty remains, state what is unresolved and when it must be settled. If a replacement venue has not confirmed availability, it is still a possibility. Tell the buyer when you have an actual change to announce, while communicating any immediate instruction they need about travel or arrival.

Prepare buyer updates people can act on

Buyers want to know whether to travel, where to go and what happens to their ticket. Start with that information. Explain the reason plainly, link to relevant official advice and name the next update or support route. Don't make people interpret an air-quality map to work out whether their event is happening.

Keep one current public information page and update the other customer channels consistently. Put the decision near the top, with its date, time and local time zone. A clear timestamp helps someone recognise an old screenshot or forwarded message. Remove scheduled promotional posts that would contradict a delay or cancellation announcement.

If you're using Loopyah, event attendee email supports event updates to ticket holders and lets you send yourself a test first. Use that for the confirmed change, with the event name, required action and support details. The organiser still supplies the decision and wording. Email should be one part of the communication plan, alongside the public page, gate information and other appropriate channels.

Check the message on a phone before sending. Does its subject name the affected event? Can a buyer find the travel instruction without scrolling past a brand image? Does the support team know the answer to the most obvious reply? A visually tidy email can still omit the only fact the reader needs.

Here are three example messages for Harbour Arts Night. They demonstrate structure, not a ready-to-send policy. Replace the details with the confirmed decision, reviewed buyer options and real contact information before use.

When a decision is still pending

Wildfire smoke may affect Harbour Arts Night this evening. We are reviewing the local air-quality forecast and advice with the venue and our safety advisers. We will confirm the event arrangements by noon today, local time. Please check our event information page before travelling. If your journey starts earlier, contact our support team so we can explain the current position.

Use a pending message only while there is still a real decision to make. If the event has already been cancelled internally, don't keep buyers waiting behind wording that suggests the original show may proceed. Give the support team the same decision the public is about to receive.

When the event is postponed

Harbour Arts Night will not take place tonight because of wildfire smoke conditions and the advice informing our event plan. Please do not travel to the venue for this evening's performance. We have not confirmed a replacement date. We will email ticket buyers by 5pm tomorrow, local time, with the next update and their available ticket options. Our support team can help with questions about your booking.

Only promise that follow-up deadline if someone owns it and can meet it even without a new date. The next message may need to explain that a date remains unconfirmed. Keep buyers informed about their available options rather than treating a future announcement as the only response to a current booking problem.

When the event is cancelled

Harbour Arts Night has been cancelled and will not take place tonight. Please do not travel to the venue. We will email the purchaser for each booking with the confirmed refund arrangements and the support route for any payment problems. If you are already at the venue, speak to the event staff at the signed help point for the current departure arrangements.

This example deliberately avoids inventing a payment completion date. Your actual cancellation message should include the refund amount, method and timing once those have been confirmed for the event. Our event cancellation email guide develops that part of the communication in more detail.

Make the information usable for people who need different formats or assistance. Publish meaningful text rather than putting the whole update inside an image. Review changes against your pre-arrival accessibility information, particularly if entrances, transport or waiting arrangements have changed. Don't let the old access guide keep directing people to an unavailable location.

Respond when conditions change during the show

An advance decision to open is based on the information and arrangements available then. Keep monitoring afterwards, and make sure the team can use the agreed response while people are inside. A plan that only considers cancellation before doors leaves the most difficult public operation unwritten.

If the action rule requires a change, event control should issue the specific instruction to the responsible leads. Confirm whether admission stops, which activities stop and what the audience should do next. The stage announcement and gate instruction need to describe the same operation. Otherwise, people can continue arriving while those inside are being told to leave.

Ask the medical, venue and crowd leads to agree the movement arrangements beforehand. You might need different instructions for people in the audience area, those waiting at the entrance and those already at a transport stop. Use the assessed destinations and routes. Don't direct a whole audience towards a limited room because its door is the nearest visible option.

The people who need assistance must be included in that response. Confirm who contacts the relevant staff, how the agreed support reaches the person and who checks the handover. Don't assume that an announcement asking everyone to move provides the same practical instruction to someone waiting for assistance at another part of the site.

Have a clear process for people who need medical help. Staff should summon the appropriate response through the event's medical and emergency arrangements. Keep that route available while the wider audience is receiving instructions. A steward dealing with a queue should know how to call for help without leaving their post unstaffed.

Avoid an open-ended pause with no decision about the people waiting. If you are considering resumption, check where the audience can be during that assessment and how you will update them. Give staff an agreed next review and a way to report that the waiting arrangement is no longer workable. The pause itself has operating consequences.

Transport, security and customer support also need the change immediately. The audience may reach the exit well before the usual departure period. Confirm what can operate now, who manages people awaiting onward travel and which contacts remain available. If you have to change the plan again, update those teams before issuing conflicting public directions.

For Harbour Arts Night, a mid-show stop still cannot become a 600-person move into the 180-person hall. The response must use the arrangements assessed for the event, with the relevant safety leads controlling the next steps. The shortfall doesn't disappear because the audience is already on site.

Keep the public message clear about the immediate action, then explain the booking consequences when confirmed. Someone leaving the audience area needs the correct route and assistance information first. Customer support can provide the detailed ticket follow-up through the promised channel. Assign that follow-up before the decision team disperses so an interrupted performance doesn't become an unanswered booking problem.

Know what the decision means for cash

Safety and official instructions determine what you can operate. Your financial preparation should make the required response possible. Check supplier commitments, possible refunds and available cash before the decision becomes urgent, rather than using the amount already spent as a reason to continue.

Separate money already paid from amounts still payable. Then distinguish spending you can stop from payments that remain due under the actual agreement. Ask the relevant advisers to review cancellation terms, customer rights and insurance coverage. Don't assume that smoke is covered, that an outdoor event is automatically nonrefundable or that a supplier deposit is your entire liability.

For a simple fictional cash check, suppose Harbour Arts Night has $30,000 of available cash at the decision point. The team's reviewed cancellation scenario requires $24,000 of buyer refunds, $3,500 of unpaid supplier balances and $500 of additional support costs. All figures are invented USD amounts. The refund assumption is specific to this example, not a statement of anyone else's entitlement.

Those remaining payments total $28,000, leaving $2,000 before any other obligations. The business has already paid $5,000 of deposits, and the $30,000 opening cash figure is measured after those payments. Don't subtract the deposits again when checking whether the remaining payments can be funded.

That cash calculation is deliberately narrow. It excludes taxes, any separately charged fees and other business commitments. Reconcile those items in the real forecast. It also doesn't mean the event has lost only $2,000; that number is the cash left after the listed future payments, not the profit or loss on the cancelled event.

The example shows why a cancellation reserve needs actual payment detail. Your bank balance might include money required for another event, tax or payroll. Check what is genuinely available and which obligations fall due first. Our event contingency budget guide explains how to price responses and record the decisions behind a reserve.

For a relocation, ask for the full additional cost before approving it. Include venue activation, production changes, transport, staffing and buyer support. Confirm what happens if the alternative is booked but cannot be used. A refundable hold and a nonrefundable activation payment create different commitments, even if both appear as a single backup line in the budget.

Keep insurance discussions factual. Preserve the relevant notices, decisions, supplier invoices and correspondence, and follow the policy's reporting requirements. Ask the insurer or broker what evidence is needed. Don't promise buyers a faster outcome because you expect insurance money that has not been confirmed.

Put the working plan in a form the team can use

You need enough detail to operate, without asking every supervisor to read a long article during a problem. Prepare a short working record supported by the venue, safety and supplier documents. The record should identify the current version and the person responsible for maintaining it.

Use these fields as a starting point:

• Event, venue, date, public hours and outdoor work periods.

• Smoke monitor, deputy, decision maker and urgent contacts.

• Official information sources, relevant locations and fallback arrangements.

• Locally agreed preparation, action and resumption rules, with their source and responsible adviser.

• Supplier, alternative-venue and buyer communication deadlines.

• Confirmed response for each operating phase, including arrival and departure.

• Indoor arrangements, with suitability, capacity, availability and outstanding conditions.

• Worker and contractor responsibilities, including instructions after public cancellation.

• Buyer message owner, current information page and support arrangements.

• Remaining payment commitments, available response funds and approval authority.

• Decision record, acknowledgements and shift handover.

Have each responsible person complete their part. The organiser shouldn't fill an unknown field with "confirmed" because there is a name on an email chain. If a question remains unresolved, record who is answering it and by when. Then decide whether the event can still rely on that option.

Rehearse a worsening forecast before opening, a deterioration during the performance and a data failure. Ask the monitor what they report, the decision maker what they authorise and the gate supervisor what buyers hear. Follow the instruction through to the person who must act.

For Harbour Arts Night, include the rejected hall assumption in that exercise. Someone may still remember the early suggestion to move everyone indoors. Make sure the briefing explicitly says that the 180-person hall is not the replacement show venue for 600 buyers. Correct old working copies so the mistake doesn't return through an otherwise well-meaning colleague.

Test the communications if mobile service is poor. Relevant staff need access to the current instructions, contact arrangements and approved site information. Agree how an urgent change reaches the gate and stage if a group message doesn't arrive. A downloaded plan helps only if the team can identify which version is current.

Finally, check what happens after the audience leaves. The public update can be complete while supplier decisions, refunds and removal arrangements remain open. Give each unfinished duty an owner and a follow-up time. Keep the monitor and safety responsibilities active for the phases your assessed plan requires.

Before your next supplier meeting, take the actual outdoor schedule, the local smoke guidance and the proposed indoor arrangement. Ask the responsible people to identify the last point at which each workable alternative can be activated. Record the decision you will make if that point arrives and the alternative is still unconfirmed.