Introduction
Smartphones have become an indispensable part of the modern festival experience. Not long ago, attendees relied on paper schedules and word-of-mouth, but today a well-designed festival app can inform and guide a crowd of 100,000 people in real time. At large-scale festivals like Coachella, Tomorrowland, or Glastonbury, the official app often serves as the information hub that keeps everyone on the same page. Designing an app for tens of thousands of festival-goers, however, comes with unique challenges – from patchy cell service to drained phone batteries and the sheer volume of simultaneous users. A veteran festival organiser knows that the key is to prioritise crucial features and reliability over flashy extras. Below, we break down the must-haves for an app UX built to handle 100k humans, keeping them informed, safe, and happy throughout a massive event.
Essential Features First: Updates, Maps, Alerts & Safety
When dealing with a crowd the size of a city, the festival app’s core features must address attendees’ most immediate needs. Real-time updates are at the top of the list. Schedules at festivals can change on a dime – a headliner runs late or a stage gets temporarily closed – so the app should be the first place schedule changes appear. For example, at Glastonbury Festival (over 135,000 attendees), things can get hectic with frequent reschedules; the official app enables festival organisers to push out instant notifications whenever performances are delayed, rescheduled, or moved. This ensures fans don’t miss their favourite acts due to last-minute changes.
An interactive festival map is the next essential. Large festival grounds span tens or even hundreds of acres, and attendees need to navigate stages, food courts, toilets, water stations, and emergency exits. The app’s map should be zoomable, easy to read under bright sunlight, and preferably works offline (more on offline mode shortly). Many festivals include GPS location or a “blue dot” feature so users can see where they are on the grounds – extremely helpful when trying to find the nearest medical tent or meet up with friends. At Coachella, for instance, the app’s map is integrated with features like locating amenities and even finding your tent or car. In 2019, Goldenvoice – the producers of Coachella – rolled out robust app functionality ranging from customisable schedules to interactive maps with wristband-linked features (www.racunalniske-novice.com). Users could instantly see the latest lineup, set their personal timetable, and even locate services, reducing the friction of moving around a huge venue.
Beyond schedule and maps, the app must facilitate personal alerts and reminders. Let attendees curate their own schedule by “starring” or selecting artists and activities they don’t want to miss. The app can then send a gentle alert 15 minutes before a starred show starts. As Rick Farman of Superfly (co-founder of Bonnaroo) has pointed out, one of the earliest wins for festival apps was giving fans an easy way to create their own personalised schedule. It’s a feature that fans now expect. At Bonnaroo (around 80,000 attendees), this capability led to heavy app engagement; during one Bonnaroo weekend the app was opened over 1.6 million times – an average of 20 times per person (www.pastemagazine.com), as attendees repeatedly checked their plans and alerts. Clearly, festival-goers value an app that helps them stay on top of who’s playing when and where.
Crucially, safety information and emergency alerts must be front-and-centre in the app’s design. Large festivals are like temporary cities, and festival organisers have a duty to keep everyone informed of any safety issues. The app should have a dedicated section for emergency info: first aid locations, lost-and-found details, severe weather procedures, and emergency contact numbers. If there’s a weather warning or any urgent safety announcement, an app push notification should be able to reach the crowd immediately – but it shouldn’t be the only channel (more on multi-channel communication later). The Rock am Ring festival in Germany, for example, has used its app to send weather evacuation notices in tandem with loudspeaker announcements. By prominently featuring a “Safety Updates” or “Festival Alerts” button on the home screen, even a distracted festival-goer can quickly find out what they need to know in a crisis. In short, when prioritising app features, think of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for festival life: first, ensure everyone’s safe and informed, then make it fun and convenient.
Battery-Life and Offline Mode: Designed for the Field
At a festival with 100k attendees, you can’t assume everyone will have a strong network connection or a fully charged phone. In fact, you should assume the opposite. Networks get strained by thousands of people posting photos and videos, and phone batteries drain quicker in an outdoor, all-day setting (spotty reception, heat, constant use for photos and texts). A savvy festival app anticipates these issues by being battery-lite and offline-friendly.
Offline functionality is a must for large-scale event apps. This means key information – the schedule, maps, artist info, and FAQs – should be downloaded to the user’s device and fully accessible without internet. If a participant loses signal or enters a dead zone on the grounds, the app must not turn into a blank screen. For example, Glastonbury’s app, backed by festival sponsor EE, provided robust connectivity and charging stations on site (festivalloverblog.wordpress.com), yet the app was still built to show schedules and maps offline in case a user’s phone went offline. Many seasoned festival producers do a “field test” of their app before the event: they pre-load it with dummy data, then switch the phone to airplane mode to ensure maps and schedules still display correctly and no features crash when truly offline. This kind of testing flushes out any accidental dependence on live data.
To preserve precious battery life, the app should be optimised to be as lightweight as possible. Dark mode or a low-brightness colour scheme option can help at night or in low light, saving battery and eyestrain. The app should avoid continuous GPS polling or background processes unless absolutely necessary. Features like real-time friend location or AR overlays are fun, but they can sap battery life – consider making high-drain features optional or able to be toggled off by the user. Also, minimise large images or videos in the app’s interface; keep the design clean and efficient so it doesn’t become a battery hog. One tip is to load map tiles or schedule data on demand when connected, then cache them for offline use, rather than constantly pulling updates. As the Eventify team notes, an event app should not take up too much storage space or cause battery drain either (www.eventify.io). Festival attendees will quickly abandon an app that slows down their phone or dies at a critical moment.
Some festival organisers partner with telecom providers or sponsors to mitigate connectivity issues – like Electric Picnic in Ireland providing onsite Wi-Fi, or Lollapalooza in Chicago boosting cell coverage – but you can’t count on every attendee being online 24/7. Therefore, design for the worst-case scenario: assume users will open your app on Sunday evening with 5% battery left and no signal. What will help them most in that moment? Perhaps an ultra-low-power “text-only” mode that just lists their next few saved events and the nearest exit gate. Think creatively: maybe provide a downloadable PDF map or schedule as backup. The bottom line is, a festival app for 100k people must be resilient – it should work in a muddy field at 1 AM just as well as it does in the office on Wi-Fi.
Smart Notifications: Helpful, Timely and Calm
With a massive audience at your fingertips, push notifications become a double-edged sword. They can greatly enhance the festival experience by providing timely information, or they can annoy and overwhelm your users if used poorly. The golden rule for festival app notifications is “push only when helpful.” Every alert you send to 100,000 devices should have a purpose that serves the attendee. For example, a reminder that a user’s favourited artist is starting in 30 minutes, or a notice that a schedule change is affecting the next act on the main stage – these are genuinely helpful and appreciated. In contrast, blasting out non-stop sponsor promotions or trivial content will lead users to mute your notifications or even uninstall the app.
It’s wise to let users opt in to different categories of notifications. Many festival apps allow attendees to toggle which alerts they want: performance reminders, schedule changes, emergency alerts, etc. Emergency and safety alerts should be on by default (with the understanding that they’ll only be used for truly urgent situations). For everything else, respect the user’s choice. If someone only cares about rock bands and not the EDM stage, perhaps they only subscribe to certain updates. Well-crafted notifications are highly effective – festival-goers love getting a heads-up about their favourite acts or exclusive surprises. Updates about schedule changes, upcoming performances by favourited artists, daily highlights, or special offers can all boost engagement when timed thoughtfully.
Another key is to always include context like time stamps or specificity in push messages. If there’s a delay on Stage 2, the notification might read: “(2:45 PM) Main Stage – start time for Artist X has been pushed back 30 minutes.” Including the time (and maybe which day, if it’s a multi-day event) on the alert itself clarifies its relevance. Attendees might be checking notifications late or out of order, so a clear, time-stamped message prevents confusion (“Was this 10 minutes ago or yesterday?”). Additionally, phrasing notifications in a calm, clear tone helps maintain order. In an urgent situation, you want to convey seriousness without inciting panic. There’s a big difference between a panicky message like “EMERGENCY: MASSIVE STORM – SEEK SHELTER NOW!!!” and a calm but direct alert: “?? Weather Update: A storm is approaching the festival grounds. Please proceed calmly to the nearest shelter areas and await further instructions.” Both convey urgency, but the latter provides guidance in a steady tone. A real-world example comes from Lightning in a Bottle festival in California, where festival organisers sent out measured, calm notifications during a windstorm advisory, telling attendees exactly what to do in a reassuring manner. The result was an orderly response rather than chaos.
Also, consider the timing of non-emergency pushes – don’t send late-night notifications that aren’t urgent if people are camping and trying to rest. Save the fun wrap-up messages or next-day tips for the morning. Remember, you’re essentially popping up in someone’s pocket amidst a very sensory-rich environment. Be polite and value the attendee’s attention. A few well-timed, useful notifications will enhance the festival experience, whereas a barrage of pings will train people to ignore or disable your messages entirely. The most successful festival apps maintain a notification cadence that feels like a helpful personal guide, not an overzealous promoter.
Unified Communication: One Source of Truth Across App and On-Site
Even the best app is not enough on its own when you’re dealing with a huge crowd. A fundamental principle for large-scale festivals is to ensure one source of truth for all public information. In practice, this means the updates and alerts published in the app should match what’s being announced on stage screens, PA systems, social media, and any other official channel. In a crowd of 100,000, not everyone will be glued to their phone – their batteries might be dead, or they might simply be dancing and not checking the app. That’s why any critical information pushed through the app must be mirrored on-site in real time.
Many top festivals have a communications command centre that coordinates messages across platforms. For instance, when severe weather hit Bonnaroo one year, the organisers simultaneously sent alerts via the app, text message, Twitter, and flashed messages on jumbotron screens at stages informing attendees to seek shelter. This unified approach prevented confusion – everyone, whether they saw it on their phone or on a large screen, got the same instructions. Similarly, Tomorrowland in Belgium (with daily crowds around 70,000) is known for its high-tech integration; its production team ensures that if there’s a schedule change or important notice, it’s promptly displayed on stage tickers and through the official app so nobody misses it. By having consistent messaging, you avoid the nightmare scenario of rumors spreading in the absence of clear info. Attendees should never see conflicting reports (for example, the app says one thing while a volunteer staffer says another).
To achieve one source of truth, designate a single content management system or team that pushes out updates to all channels at once. If the festival uses a content hub or dashboard to update the app, integrate that with feeds to your website and even to digital signage APIs if possible. For example, Insomniac, the team behind EDC Las Vegas, often integrates its festival app updates with its social media and email blasts so that an important update (like a change in entry policy or a stage schedule swap) goes out uniformly. The festival’s MCs and stage hosts can also be cued to reinforce these messages verbally. The idea is that wherever an attendee looks – their phone, the big LED screen by the main stage, the official Twitter feed, or the info booth – the same message is being delivered within minutes of an update. This builds trust that the app is giving reliable info and prevents dangerous miscommunication.
Don’t forget low-tech channels as well: on-site staff and volunteers should be briefed with the latest information as soon as it’s released, so they can answer questions accurately. For example, if gates are being closed for the night or a shuttle schedule has changed, your app can announce it – and simultaneously your staff at exits and campgrounds should get the update via radio so they can inform attendees in person. In a large festival, redundancy in communications is a feature, not a bug. By mirroring critical info across the app and physical signage/announcements, you ensure that the whole audience moves together, guided by the same source of truth.
User-Friendly and Inclusive Design
With such a huge and diverse user base, a festival app must be easy to use for everyone. Design your UX for attendees of all ages, tech skill levels, and backgrounds. That means a clean interface, intuitive navigation, and clear icons or labels. Use universally recognisable symbols (e.g. a map pin for location, a bell for alerts, a heart or star for favourites). Test the app’s usability in bright daylight as well as at night – can people read the text on a sunny afternoon? Consider using high-contrast colours and offering a dark mode, not just for battery savings but for visibility. Accessibility is also key: incorporate options for those with disabilities. For example, ensure the colour scheme is readable for colour-blind users. The Splendour in the Grass festival app in Australia received user feedback about certain text being hard to read due to colour choices (medium.com) – a reminder that we should check colour contrast and not rely purely on funky branding if it hurts usability. Use sufficiently large fonts and consider providing content in multiple languages if you expect an international crowd (many European festivals, for instance, offer English plus the local language at minimum in their apps).
An inclusive app also accounts for things like literacy and tech-savviness. Some of your attendees might not be frequent app users (imagine an older blues festival crowd versus a young EDM rave audience). So keep the onboarding simple – perhaps a brief tutorial or tooltip for first-time users that highlights how to find the schedule, how to enable notifications, etc. Make important features like Emergency Info or “Find My Friends” (if offered) easily discoverable. If the app requires login or account creation (for example to sync with a ticket or wristband), ensure that process is smooth and can handle the load of thousands signing in at once without hiccups. Many festivals tie their app into the ticketing system so that when attendees scan their ticket (like those issued via Ticket Fairy or similar platforms), they can seamlessly activate the app with the same profile – reducing the number of steps to get started.
Finally, test, test, test – not just in the lab, but with real users if possible. Do a beta release to a small group of super-fans or volunteers and gather feedback. Incorporate their suggestions about usability. Conduct a load test on your app’s infrastructure to make sure 100k people refreshing the schedule at 9am won’t crash it. There’s no faster way to lose user trust than an app that freezes or errors out when it’s needed most. By prioritising a smooth, inclusive user experience, you ensure that your communications actually reach people and that the fancy features you built actually get used.
Key Takeaways
- Focus on Crucial Features: Build your festival app around the must-haves – live schedule updates, an easy-to-read map, personalised show alerts, and a dedicated safety info section. Fun extras are secondary to information that 100,000 attendees will need hourly.
- Design for Offline & Low Battery: Assume users will have spotty reception and dwindling batteries. Provide offline access to schedules/maps and optimise everything for low power usage. An app that works in the middle of a field with zero bars is a lifesaver.
- Use Notifications Wisely: Send push alerts only for truly useful updates (schedule changes, reminders, emergencies). Include timestamps and clear info. Too many trivial pings or alarmist messages will make users ignore you – or worse, incite panic.
- Unified Messaging: Make sure the app is part of a larger communications plan. Whatever info you push through the app should simultaneously appear on stage screens, PA announcements, official sites, and staff briefings. Keep all messaging consistent from one source of truth to avoid confusion.
- Test and Iterate: A festival with 100k people leaves no room for app errors. Test the app in offline mode, under heavy load, and in real-world conditions (bright sun, weak signal). Gather attendee feedback and continuously improve the UX. A user-friendly, accessible design ensures everyone – from veteran festival-goers to first-timers – can benefit from the app.
By following these principles, festival organisers around the world – from the US and UK to India, Australia, and beyond – can leverage their event apps to vastly improve the large-scale festival experience. A well-executed app becomes the digital heartbeat of a festival, pulsing out information and connectivity that keep the vibe positive and the crowd moving safely. In an era where attendees expect instant information, delivering it in a calm, clear, and effective way is one of the best investments you can make for your 100,000-strong community of festival fans.
25th August 2025