App To Bridge Gap Between Festivals And Fans

SecondScreen is the name of an app that can be customized by festivals, other events and artists to offer fans interactive, behind-the-scenes content. SecondScreen was developed in London and is the brainchild of Niall Green and Coda’s Solomon Parker.

Both agreed there was “nothing out there to link hundreds and thousands of fans together at the one point in time they wanted to be connected,” to use Parker’s words. SecondScreen is developed as a white-label service, which means that any event or artist can customize the app according to their own imaginings. In all cases, the aim is to bring users and artists or events closer together “by allowing fans to interact directly with intimate, backstage content that is unavailable anywhere else.”

The app premiered at this year’s Isle Of Wight Festival. It was designed to offer festivalgoers a portal for sharing their own content, as well as content from the festival, artists and brands. The app was downloaded by one in four attendees, or around 17,000 over the course of the weekend (June 9-12).

Festival founder John Giddings said: “Launching a brand new app for 2016 was a big undertaking for all involved, but SecondScreen provided us with a brilliantly customized platform to inform our users, as well as a whole new channel to engage them with.”

Being able to target “users directly via their mobile phone has proved to be an invaluable resource – which we look forward to building on for 2017,” Giddings said.

Other festivals using SecondScreen include Fusion Fest and Sound City in Liverpool, Sundown Festival in Norwich, The Social Festival in Kent as well as Sunscape Festival in Malta. Anastacia is the first act to use the app.