Sold out means a specific event, session, or function has no more room. The event, each session, and each function track sold-out status separately. When the item you want is sold out, Rhythm stops new people from choosing it and sends them to the waitlist instead.
What Triggers Sold Out
An event, session, or function becomes sold out only when capacity tracking is turned on for that item. If capacity tracking is off, the item never shows as sold out, no matter how many people register.
For a function, Rhythm recalculates sold-out status from its tickets and waitlist. Only active tickets count in that recalculation, and deleting a ticket instead of canceling it does not trigger another check.
Why It Stays Sold Out While People Are Waiting
After something sells out, it stays sold out as long as anyone remains on its waitlist, even if your organization later turns the waitlist off. Every waitlist entry counts, regardless of status. An entry with a lapsed offer still holds a place, and someone who joined the waitlist but never received an offer still keeps the record marked sold out.
Tip
If an event, session, or function still shows sold out after seats seem to have opened, check its waitlist. As long as one entry remains, whether active, lapsed, or in another status, the record stays sold out.
What You See When You Try to Register
When you start registering for a sold-out event, Rhythm shows a panel that says the event is full instead of showing the registration form. From that panel, you can join the event’s waitlist, leave the waitlist if you are already on it, or go back. Rhythm checks the event’s sold-out status once, when you start registering, so a later status change will not interrupt you while you fill out the form.
Sessions and functions work a little differently. A sold-out session or function does not block the whole registration. Instead, it appears as full where you would normally choose it, with an option to join its waitlist. When staff register someone in the Console, they can see every session and function, whether sold out or not, including items hidden from the Portal or closed to Portal registration. Because a sold-out session does not stop the event’s own registration, a registrant can still choose a registration package and be charged for the event while a session they wanted is only waitlisted, as long as registration is not stopped by an event capacity limit or event-level waitlist.
A session’s or function’s sold-out mark is also read once, when that step of the registration form loads, and it is not refreshed while the step stays open. Because of this, a registration saved as a draft can keep a session or function selection made before it became sold out, and completing that draft later can go through with the original selection.
Registering After You Are Offered a Place
If you already have a waitlist entry for the event with a status that makes you eligible to register, Rhythm does not show the sold-out panel, and you can register normally. What happens next depends on how your organization handles waitlists:
- Under a manual waitlist process, your eligibility to register does not expire on its own. You can register until staff change the entry’s status.
- Under an automatic waitlist process, your eligibility lapses when the entry is marked as missed, and Rhythm turns you away again if you try to register after that.
Only a waitlist entry for the event itself works this way. A waitlist entry for a specific session or function does not, by itself, let you register for the sold-out event.
If you're already registered for the event and a session's waitlist entry reaches Eligible to Register, use Modify Order to add that session to your existing registration once you've received the notification.
Sold Out Is Not the Only Thing That Stops Registration
Reaching capacity is one way registration stops, but it is not the only one. Registration for a registration process stays open until that process's own Close Date & Time passes. A capacity cap and a waitlist control what happens once an event is full, but they do not close registration by themselves. If no close date and time is set on the process, people can still register even after deadline tiers have moved on. To stop registration entirely at a certain point, set the process's Close Date & Time and save it.
Guests Can Be Refused Before the Event Itself Is Full
Rhythm checks guests separately from the event’s sold-out status. If the event does not have enough places left for you and every guest you are trying to add, Rhythm refuses the request with the message "This event is at capacity. Unable to add a guest," even if the event has not technically reached its sold-out mark yet.
This guest check happens when you try to add guests, but it does not reserve those places. Because of that, two people trying to add guests at the same time could both be told there is room, even though there is only enough room for one of them.
Related Reading
For the numbers behind these rules, including how Rhythm counts session places and decides when a session is sold out, see Session Places and When a Session Is Sold Out. For staff-side waitlist work after something is sold out, see Manage a Waitlist in the Console and Offer a Waitlist Place by Hand. For joining or leaving a waitlist yourself, see Join or Leave a Waitlist from the Portal.