- Staff members
- Attendees
- VIP attendees
- Backstage pass holders
- Roadies
At nearly all events, badges are issued to staff members to allow them access to the facilities they need to work in before, during, and after the event. Different staff will have different access rights, all clearly delineated on the badge. Emergency and medical staff will of course have full run of the facilities, if required, whereas construction staff may be limited to access prior to opening-day. During the event, different badges should be issued to gate attendants, food service workers, stage hands, and so forth. Generally, the team members are identified well in advance, so their badges, with photos, can be printed and readied well in advance.
Whether or not to issue large format event badges to attendees will be entirely dependent on the nature and the size of the event. If the event schedule is only a few hours, or limited in scope, then traditional tickets will probably be sufficient. But if the event is spread over several days, and covers a large venue, then large format badges will greatly facilitate crowd control and ensuring that the people only gain access to the areas they are authorized to enter. So a single-day sports event, like a ball game, may not require professional badges, except for the staff. Whereas a competition spread over multiple days in different venues, like a major track meet or tennis tournament, will benefit greatly from professional, fraud-resistant badges issued to all attendees.