Back in February we reported that Buzzd, a Mobile Web social networking service used at bars, clubs and restaurants, had won a bunch of awards at the MobileMonday Peer Awards. We noted that Buzzd is a great example of how location-based services will be the killer app for the Mobile Web. Today Buzzd announced that their service is being white labeled for the music and arts festival Bonnaroo, in a feature labeled ‘Bonnaroo Mobile’.
Festival goers with mobile phones will be able to keep in touch with their friends, sign up for alerts, access performance schedules for specific artists, ‘buzz’ people with showtimes, give real time reviews of the music, and report on what is happening across the venue.
Buzzd is one of an emerging breed of mobile apps, that basically enables real-time social networking using phones. Apart from powering Bonnaroo Mobile, Buzzd allows people to use their mobile phones to find an event near where they are, then buzz their friends to meet them there. It operates under the catchphrase: “Your city, in real time”.
80,000 people are expected at Bonnaroo, and the festival features some awesome music artists – such as The Raconteurs, Kanye West, Pearl Jam, Jack Johnson and many more. According to Buzzd CEO Nihal Mehta, Buzzd at Bonnaroo will bring “user-generated real-time updates” to music festivals for the first time. Bonnaroo Mobile will be accessible through the Mobile Web browser of consumers’ handsets, as well as SMS. It is a free service at Bonnaroo and the company says it will work “across all cellular carriers”.
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is described on its website as “a four-day, multi-stage camping festival”, being held on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee, on 12-15 June.
Other than Buzzd, there are a number of interesting Web-media things happening at Bonnaroo. Some examples: Bonnaroo Radio channel is a radio station for the festival, powered by Microsoft’s Flash-like technology Silverlight; Nokia and film-maker Spike Lee are creating a “massively collaborative film”, which will have a presence at Bonnaroo; FM Publishing (which provides adverts for ReadWriteWeb and other blogs), has created a “collective, crowdsourced media campfire of sorts” called CrowdFire.
Update: Social Media platform KickApps sent us a note to say that they are powering the online community and media management system for Bonnaroo.com.
Are any RWW readers going to Bonnaroo? If so please leave a comment telling us what you’re looking forward to experiencing – especially if it’s Web-based!
See also:The Future of Mobile Social Networks: 4 Promising Services
