How to Turn a Client's Sketch Into a Real Festival Site Map

At some point, every event business gets sent a site map like a scribble on a piece of paper. Stage here. Toilets there. Bar somewhere in the middle. The proportions are completely off. The sizing makes no sense. And the moment anything changes — which it always does — nobody knows whether the version they have is the current one.
This is how most outdoor event planning works today, and it creates the same problems every time. On build day, suppliers arrive asking where things go. The power team sets up in the wrong place. Two vendors try to occupy the same area. Someone has an old version of the plan on their phone and nobody can agree on what the current layout looks like.
GoodEvent Maps fixes all of this. You take the client's scribbled vision, however rough it is, and turn it into an accurate site plan built directly on real Google Maps satellite imagery — in minutes, without any specialist software or training. One link, sent to everyone, always showing the most up-to-date version of the plan.

The Problem With Paper Plans

Paper plans have three fundamental problems, and they don't go away no matter how carefully you draw them.
First, the sizing is always wrong. A hand-drawn map can't reflect real distances, real terrain, or real access constraints. The stage that looks fine on paper might be sitting on a slope. The vehicle route that seems logical might be narrower than the lorry that needs to use it.
Second, updates don't travel. The moment a client changes their mind — moves the stage, adds a bar, shifts the toilet block — the old plan is wrong and everyone who has it is working from bad information. Someone emails the new version. Someone doesn't open the email. On build day, that person is using the old plan.
Third, on the day itself, there's no authoritative reference. Suppliers arrive with different versions. Nobody can quickly confirm whether what they have is current. The result is a build day full of questions that should have been answered before anyone left their depot.

Building the Festival Site Map in GoodEvent Maps

Start with the real location

Open GoodEvent Maps and type in the venue's postcode or the nearest address. The map switches to satellite view and you're looking at the actual site — the real field, the real access road, the real treeline. This immediately changes how you plan. You can see the slope that would affect the stage position. You can see the access route from the road and whether it can take a large vehicle. You're planning on reality, not a blank canvas.
GoodEvent Maps works anywhere in the world. If the venue is in a rural location with limited satellite imagery resolution, the terrain features are still visible — slopes, field boundaries, hedges, existing structures. The planning context is always there.

Drag and drop assets onto the real terrain

The asset library in GoodEvent Maps has over 100 pre-built event icons: stages, marquees, ticket tents, bars, toilet blocks, generators, first aid points, entrance gates, fencing lines, food vendor pitches, car parks, and more. Drag them onto the satellite map and position them exactly where they'll go on the day.
Resize each asset to match its real footprint. A 10-metre stage takes up a 10-metre footprint on the map. The spacing between the toilets and the main arena reflects the actual distance on the ground. When you share this map with a supplier, they can see not just where their area is but how much space they actually have.

No entry zones, restricted areas, access routes

Mark the areas that need to stay clear — fire lanes, emergency vehicle access, backstage zones. Draw the delivery access route from the road onto the map. Mark the gate the caterers use as different from the gate the public uses. These annotations cost nothing to add and prevent a significant number of build day conversations.

On the day of the event, when your suppliers and your customers are arriving, everyone is looking at the same map — the most recently up-to-date version. Nobody is asking where the power should go.

Sharing the Map: One Link, Always Live

When the plan is ready — or even at a working draft stage — hit share. GoodEvent Maps generates a link that anyone can open on any device without needing a login or account. Phone, laptop, iPad — the client opens it on whatever they have.
This is the part that changes the game on build day. The link doesn't point to a static image or a PDF that was current when it was sent. It points to the live map. Any change you make after sending the link — moving the stage, adding an asset, adjusting a boundary — is reflected immediately when anyone opens the link. They don't need a new version. They don't need to check whether what they have is current. The link is always current.
That means your client, your crew, your vendors, and the venue are all working from the same plan at the same time. The build day questions that usually start with 'which version are we using?' stop happening.

What This Looks Like for the Client

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From the client's side, receiving a GoodEvent Maps link instead of a rough sketch signals something important: this supplier has thought about our event properly. They've placed our stage on the real terrain. They've shown where the toilets go relative to the main arena. They've marked the access routes. The plan makes sense because it's built on a real place.

That level of preparation builds confidence in the supplier before a single piece of equipment is on site. And in a market where most businesses are still emailing annotated screenshots, a professional satellite-based site plan with a live shareable link is genuinely differentiating.

'On the day of the event when your suppliers or your customers are arriving, everyone's looking at the same map, the most recently up to date map. So everyone knows where equipment is going. They're not asking you a million questions.'

Who This Works For

GoodEvent Maps works for any outdoor event that needs a site plan — music festivals, agricultural shows, corporate outdoor days, outdoor weddings, sports events, food and drink festivals, outdoor markets, school fetes, community events. Any event where multiple suppliers or crew members need to know where things go on a real piece of ground.

For the supplier side — hire companies, production teams, caterers, generator providers, toilet hire — sharing the GoodEvent Maps link with each vendor ahead of build day means they arrive knowing exactly where their area is, where they can access it from, and what's around them. The questions that usually happen at 6am on build day happen in the days before, when there's still time to adjust.

Connecting Maps to the Rest of the Event Plan

GoodEvent Maps works as a standalone tool, but it connects naturally with the rest of the GoodEvent toolkit. The outdoor site plan in Maps shows where the marquee or structure is positioned on the site. GoodEvent Layout then handles the interior — where every table, chair, bar, and dance floor goes inside that structure. The two together give every stakeholder a complete picture of the event, indoors and out.
For crew briefing, the Maps link drops into a digital briefing pack alongside the floor plan, the load list, and the shift details. Everything crew needs on their phone before they leave the depot. For documentation, GoodEvent Docs handles the pre-erection site check and handover forms that confirm the site condition at arrival and departure.

It's Free and Takes Minutes

GoodEvent Maps is completely free to use. There's no limit on the number of maps you can create, no limit on the size or complexity of a site, and no training required. If you can use Google Maps, you can use GoodEvent Maps. The first map takes about 10 minutes. Every one after that is faster.
Start by putting a postcode or site location into GoodEvent Maps — it works anywhere in the world — add the assets that reflect your plan, and share the link. Your client stops sending you rough sketches. Your crew stops arriving confused. Your build day gets shorter.

Get Started

Create your first festival site map at goodevent.com/products/maps. It's free — no account needed to explore, and no credit card to create one. For the interior floor plan that pairs with your outdoor site map, see GoodEvent Layout. For crew time tracking and scheduling on build day, see GoodEvent Time.