From intimate neighbourhood gatherings to sprawling multi-day festivals, today’s mobile events are a seamless blend of creativity, coordination, and technology.
From rock and reggae music festivals to traveling circuses, food trucks, and dog-friendly ‘paws in the park’ gatherings, mobile events are a popular way of bringing crowd-pleasing attractions to young and old alike. Smaller events, like an afternoon street party, may bring in a few dozen neighbours, while others—such as three-day-long multi-stage performances—draw hundreds of thousands. No matter the size of the gathering, all have one thing in common: the need for up-to-the-minute planning.
Scheduling is just one aspect of traveling events; for event organizers, there can be literally hundreds of moving pieces. Outdoor music festivals require tight scheduling and performer itineraries, a stage or multiple stages, sound systems, lighting, and more. Then there is the issue of attendee safety, security, and comfort. Nothing, from ticket collectors to first aid stations, food and beverage vendors to trash cans, can be overlooked.
A long way from Woodstock
There have been plenty of outdoor music festivals over the decades, but the most iconic of all remains the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, better known as Woodstock. Held on a dairy farm about 40 miles from Woodstock, New York from August 15th to 18th, 1969, the massive event was a gathering of some of the world’s biggest musical acts, and a high point for the hippie counterculture movement. Despite rain and overcast skies, the festival—billed as “An Aquarian Exposition in White Lake, N.Y.: 3 Days of Peace & Music”—drew an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 attendees; the exact number isn’t known because event organizers were ultimately so overwhelmed they decided to waive fees.
Drawing the likes of Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, and other giants, Woodstock showed the world it was possible to host a massive festival without a permanent structure. Today, we take events like Burning Man, Coachella, Woofstock, Ribfest, AFROFEST, Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Milwaukee’s Summerfest, the world’s largest annual music festival, for granted.
Today’s tech
In hindsight, it is amazing that Woodstock and its 1967 predecessor, Monterey Pop, went off as well as they did. When these and other major festivals were staged almost 60 years ago, cell phones, laptop computers and tablets, scheduling software, and other devices we take for granted did not exist.
In 2025, organizing and coordinating festivals, fairs, and outdoor concerts is an up-to-the-minute endeavour, necessitating the latest technologies. Success requires precise coordination, ensuring people and materials arrive on time—materials like portable staging and stage platforms, ramps, lighting and sound systems, cables, temporary fencing and crowd control barriers, event seating (if applicable), merchandise tables, pyrotechnics, and more.
“Using technology and keeping up to date on the latest innovations can help make a music festival more attractive to festival-goers and at the same time make the organisation’s logistics and operations more efficient,” writes Andy Robertson for Festival Pro. “As festival-goers become more technology hungry and music festivals more competitive, how is the merging of technology and innovation impacting on the modern-day music festival?”
Certainly, the concert-attending experience is different today from in years past. For major events, long gone are the days of lining up at record shops to buy printed tickets with cash. While some smaller events give attendees the option of printing their own tickets at home, many are forgoing paper for environmentally friendly technology that has concert-goers use their Smartphones to display a unique QR code that is scanned at entry. For attendees, using a QR code can be convenient; for event organizers, QR ticketing makes the entry process faster and more efficient.
Most vendors on festival grounds, including food and beverage stands and merch tables, are now cashless. Large, multi-day shows provide their own mobile apps so concert-goers can navigate the showgrounds, check show times, and even view sponsor messaging and other information. And depending on the event, attendees may be provided with RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) wristbands with built-in LED lights.
The sound and the vision
Years ago, concert-goers often brought binoculars to see the performers on stage. This evolved into a multiplicity of large screens so that even people far from the stage could see their favourite performers. Today, concerts are a truly immersive experience, with all sorts of projection, VR (Virtual Reality) technology, and even holograms.
Following pandemic closures, festival organizers worldwide scrambled to bring visitors back to in-person events. Some major festivals, like England’s five-day-long Glastonbury, were delayed for two years, resulting in huge financial losses. To avoid a similar situation in the future, event organizers introduced the ‘virtual’ Glastonbury. Unfortunately, the event did not go off as planned, with ticket holders denied entry to the livestream for the first two hours. Although the event was a disaster, it underscored the need for stable 5G technology to ensure successful future gatherings.
Unlike concerts of the past where people snuck in cameras, almost all attendees today openly bring in smartphones; many immediately upload their content to social media sites like Facebook, TikTok, or Instagram. High-speed Internet capabilities also enable concert organizers to showcase artists and individual performers across multiple stages and even livestream events to audiences around the world.
While the spirit of community, music, and shared experience remains unchanged from the days of Woodstock, the tools and techniques behind the scenes have transformed dramatically. Organizers now rely on cutting-edge innovations—from QR-coded entry and cashless transactions to immersive visual effects and real-time communication—to deliver events that are safer, more efficient, and more engaging than ever before. Yet beneath the lights and sound, the success of any event still comes down to timeless essentials: careful planning, a dedicated team, and an unwavering commitment to creating memorable moments that bring people together.
