How Do Pre-Event Activities Alleviate Congestion and Increase Attendees' Travel Utility and the Venue's Profit During a Special Event?

•The study analysed attendees’ departure time choices before special events and explain how pre-event activities change attendees’ departure time.•A distribution of attendees’ pre-event utility sensitivity that results in no-queue and capacity waste at the bottleneck is given.•Relationship amongst attendees’ departure times choices, the attractiveness of the event venue and venue profit was examined.•The optimal choice of the overall price level and facility or service level is determined to maximize venue profit and attendees’ trip utilities.