Case Study: Supporting Forestry England’s smooth migration of 93,000 tickets

Forestry England manages more than 1,500 woods and forests across England - welcoming over 285 million visitors every year.

When their existing ticketing system was no longer fit for purpose, Forestry England began the search for a new provider.

Across their diverse events calendar, they host everything from walking trails to seasonal attractions.

Each summer, they host Forest Live - a flagship festival that turns four of their woodlands into open-air music venues, welcoming world-class artists to perform among the trees.

By the time they partnered with Nuweb Group, nearly 93,000 Forest Live tickets had been sold on their old system. 

The goal of the migration was to move every ticket seamlessly, with zero disruption to fans, no impact on day-to-day operations, and no reputational risk to the flagship event.

Almost 93,000 tickets were already sold across the 19 Forest Live events. Every record needed to be migrated with no duplication, loss or mismatch between customer data and ticket allocation.

The risk was higher because the events are held in remote forests with limited connectivity, meaning fans had to download their tickets beforehand. Missing or unissued tickets would cause delays and affect the fan experience on the day.

Nuweb Group worked with Forestry England to make sure they had:

• Accurate migration of all existing orders, customers and barcode data

• Tools to verify and communicate with fans directly

• Full visibility over every step of the project

In many ways, this migration wasn’t just a data project, it was a safeguard for one of Forestry England’s most visible public programs.

Forest Live funds conservation work and often marks people’s first connection with the nation’s forests. Any errors could’ve meant long delays, frustrated fans, and a lost opportunity to make that lasting impression.

Delivering the migration in time for Forest Live required close collaboration between Forestry England’s operations team and Nuweb. 

To support this, Nuweb Group implemented structured project management plans that Forestry England could easily monitor.

Working side by side, both teams focused on ensuring complete data accuracy - verifying every field, format, and checkpoint before the import took place.

Nuweb’s data import tools ensured every ticket sale and customer record was accurately matched to its counterpart from the previous system.

A controlled testing phase in a sandbox environment allowed both teams to validate the process in real conditions before the full import. 

Once confirmed, the full migration proceeded, with continuous validation between platforms to ensure no data was lost. 

By the final validation checkpoint, every record had been imported and validated, ensuring 93,000 tickets were live and ready to scan before the first Forest Live event.

After the migration was completed, Forestry England used Nuweb’s email tool to contact every customer directly - inviting fans to download their tickets for the first time.

Through the Nuweb platform, Forestry England could monitor ticket download activity in real time and quickly identify fans who hadn’t yet downloaded their tickets. 

This allowed them to send targeted reminders, ensuring fans had their tickets saved on their phones ahead of time, preventing any issues with limited internet access on the day.

The migration delivered exactly what was needed, a seamless handover of nearly 93,000 existing tickets with no data loss, no downtime, and no disruption.

The success wasn’t measured just by the data, but by the experience. When the 2025 Forest Live season began, every ticket scanned correctly, and for the first time only a handful of fans arrived without their tickets. A dramatic improvement from previous years.

The impact was immediate on the ground. Entry queues for each event's 10,000 concert-goers moved faster, the 250 on-site staff faced fewer ticketing issues, and fans arrived prepared. What had previously been one of their most stressful operational moments became one of their most seamless. 

Behind the scenes, Forestry England’s operations team described a sense of relief and pride in how the transition unfolded. The shared focus on preparation, communication, and validation between both teams paid off.

This migration wasn’t just about data transfer - it was about continuity, confidence, and credibility.

For Forestry England, the data represented more than numbers in a system. It held years of relationships, ticket sales, and customer trust. 

Migrating it safely meant protecting their operations and the reputation of one of the UK’s most respected public institutions.

For any organisation, switching platforms introduces uncertainty. The question isn’t only whether the new technology will work, but whether the transition can happen without disruption or loss of trust.

Nuweb Group’s structured, transparent process turned a high-risk change into a model of operational stability.

This wasn’t just a technical success, it was the start of a long-term partnership built on trust, performance, and a shared ambition to deliver better experiences for every fan.