Spoiler Alert: I’ve concluded the Ultimate Festival App still doesn’t exist. That conclusion might surprise you since Joobili recently launched its Sziget Festival App for one of Europe’s biggest music festivals. Don’t get me wrong, our festival apps have a lot of cool features and we plan to add even more. But we still haven’t built the ultimate festival app…yet. The good news is nobody else has either.
So what exactly is the ultimate festival app you ask? I think you start by pulling bits and pieces of existing festival apps that are really well done. The ultimate festival app needs to have the right mix of Information, Simplicity, Interaction, and Fun.
Information: At its most basic level, the festival app must replace the paper program booklet we all hate carrying around. In addition to performer and venue listings it should take advantage of the digital medium and include plenty of photos and videos. The Cannes Film Festival App is a good example of rich information packed into a festival app.
Simplicity: The danger with all this information in the palm of your hand is that it becomes overwhelming and confusing if the user interface is not intuitive. Believe me, simplifying all this information into a festival app is no easy challenge.
Interaction: This is where festival apps have a real opportunity to dramatically enhance your experience. The Glastonbury App by Orange offers a nice augmented reality experience. Joobili’s new Sziget Festival App increases interactivity by helping festival goers connect with friends within the festival and those beyond the festival gates via twitter, facebook, etc.
Fun: We go to festivals to let loose and have fun and this element is sometimes lost in our search for the perfect digital program guide. I’ve seen fun features like tent-finders, strobe lights and alcohol tests. My personal favorite is the encore flame included in the French Quarter Festival App.
In addition to the criteria above, the ultimate festival app must do one more thing. It must have a business benefit to offset the cost of developing it. This could be revenue from sponsorships, paid apps or in the case of free apps it could be user registrations and brand awareness. The point is that festival apps are not just fun toys, they are an increasingly important part of the festival experience (especially with mobile ticketing on the horizon).
Judging by the flood of festival apps that launched in 2010 it won’t be long before we are closer to the ultimate festival app. Until then, we’ll keep improving on what we’ve got.
