The Need For A Better Solution
At the 2024 and 2025 Fest the Venmo solution provided a wonderful way for fest goers to participate in support of our buskers without the need for cash availability. However, there was some difficulty with writing the name and Venmos of the bands on the cards velcroed to that hats including illegibility and smudging; resulting in some patron confusion and frustration with that system. In 2026 there was no Venmo solution provided at all, and that was the number one fest goer complaint that I heard as a Stage Manager. Working in the Application Development field personally I immediately began thinking about a solution that fixed both the issue of not providing Venmos at all and also the legibilty issues. I believe this demo is a great lauching point for becoming that solution as it alows for a single QR code across venues that directs patrons to only the currently playing bands and the venue / film they are currently opening for.
This allows the QR to be printed on stickers for busker hats and displayed on screen.
Details and Decisions
- Content: The schedule is for Friday, March 6th of 2026 Festival. I did this so a user can verify it is working by comparing the films available at anytime by matching the reference point of that Friday's schedule.
The bands are not the actual assigned bands since I did not have access to that information.
- Time: When initially loading, the page shows only the films that are currently loading in. A patron looking to give to their current busker is looking only at a list of 5 possibilities which includes theater and film name, rather than a long list of every band at the festival. For this demonstration a user can append "?time={testtime}" to the end of site address in the browser's address bar to simulate any timeslot of the day. The {testtime} parameter can be written in either 24 or 12 hr time formats; so 6:41 PM or 18:41 will return the venues loading in at that time.
- Location: When a person loads the page they are asked to allow location. If location is allowed that location is appended to the request so that the venue they are actually sitting in moves to the top. This is determined by computing the distance in meters from the theater's centerpoint. If a user does not enable location services the buttons are ordered by Showtime. For this demonstration a user can add "?lat={testlat}&lng={testlng}" to the end of site address in the browser's address bar to simulate a patrons movement through festival venues. This can also be paired with the {testtime} parameter by adding "&time={testtime}" to the end of the string.
- Portability: The page is written in Javascript and Jquery using a Bootstrap 5.3 Framework for maximum portability. It uses json ajax calls which are parsed to generate the buttons, and fill in the options lists for lookups. The button order is set by the backend server's query. While I would be happy to host the schedule if that feels best; the actual code can be easily run off any server assuming an available backend which can deliver the sorted json object the page is parsing.
- Json Sample:This sample is based on 6:41PM and location services disabled.
[
{
"VenueName": "The Picturehouse",
"MovieTitle": "Who Moves America",
"MovieStart": "6:45 PM",
"BandName": "Hadiza.",
"BandVenmo": "Hadiza-S"
},
{
"VenueName": "The Globe",
"MovieTitle": "Broken English",
"MovieStart": "6:45 PM",
"BandName": "Mobile Funk Unit",
"BandVenmo": "TravisHuffTBone88"
},
{
"VenueName": "Missouri Theater",
"MovieTitle": "The Great Expirement",
"MovieStart": "7:00 PM",
"BandName": "Colibri Duo",
"BandVenmo": "Andreas-daisies"
},
{
"VenueName": "Big RagTag",
"MovieTitle": "Pinball",
"MovieStart": "7:00 PM",
"BandName": "True Lions",
"BandVenmo": "truelions"
}
] The object has the 5 key value pairs, used to generate each button, and is delivered in the order the buttons will appear on the page.
- Management Portal: I only wrote a super minimal management portal at this time.
If the Fest did decide to proceed and use a version of this I hosted then I would write a portal that best fit your needs. We would determine at that point if a series of imports pulled from your existing event management system or a system to easily enter the information into this system was the better choice. I will fully accomadate what provides the least burdern to Fest Staff.
I am very interested in Volunteering with the Fest to finish building out this or a similar solution to make the digital side of the tip hats the easiest experience possible for the fest's patrons. Wether this is a Venmo solution or something that uses another API like Square, so the fest can collect and distribute those funds, I am here to donate the time necessary to make this what it needs to be if the Music Team and Executive staff like what you see and are interested in proceeding.
Kevin J Bowman
kevin@kevinjbowman.com
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