Lollapalooza Asks Developers To Create the Ultimate Festival App [VIDEOS]

In an effort to create the best application for the upcoming Lollapalooza 2011 music festival, the fest opened up its API and held a hackathon.

Remember when mapping out which shows to see at a music fest involved grabbing a calendar from your local alternative news weekly and circling stuff? Well, those days are waning, as evidenced by Lolla’s most recent foray into app creation, a contest called HackLolla, launched on May 6 at Music Hack Day.

To crowdsource the perfect app for the fest, Lolla opened up its API (including data about artists, schedules, events), and furnished additional APIs from Soundcloud, Echo Nest, and Songkick.

From this contest, Lolla garnered 19 entries — from schedule planners to livestreaming apps to games — and after public voting, they’ll choose two to be featured at the festival in August.

We took a look at the 19 candidates, and it seems like a lot of the devs took the fest scheduler approach. That’s all well and good — every fest needs a show calendar (I used the hell out of the Festival Explorer Austin Edition at SXSW) — but some of the more creative apps, such as Set Pickr, which asks users to predict a band’s setlist, intrigued us more.

Check out the gallery below and let us know which of the 19 hacks would be most useful to you at a music festival.

The Showcal

This web app show artists’ Facebook photos and fan count, music videos from YouTube, links to social media pages, and info on what time they go on stage. The Showcal also recommends bands to see based on bands you’re already a fan of.   

Who’s Now Who’s Next

This Android app does what it sounds like it does — shows you who’s performing now and who’s next. It also recommends bands to see.

Pilolo

Apparently, this iOS app identifies the band playing via “geolocation,” and lets you follow the band by shaking your phone. It also includes artist info, the ability to buy music and info on upcoming shows.

iLollapalooza

This iOS app provides artist info, updates and music video playback using VEVO.

Plan-A-Palooza

This Android app features artist lookup, a personalized event schedule and an interactive map of the festival.

Lolla Nation

This is an interactive web app that lets you figure out which artists to follow and get updates from.

Lolla Search

This Android app is basically a planning app that lets you add shows to your calendar. You can get reminders for shows and alerts when you try to double book. It also has a map with info about who’s playing on all the stages.

Lolla2011

This iOs app is similar to Lolla Search. Plan your schedule and get alerts about upcoming shows.

Lollamania

Another planning app (mobile web), this time featuring info about hotels, after-parties, parking and taxi services.

Lollapalooza Is Your Friend

From the makers of AudioVroom, this hack adds the fest to your list of friends in-app, and generates a Lolla playlist.

LollapalooBox

This livestreaming web app lets those without tickets attend the fest virtually.

LollaScope

Similar to Songkick and Festival Explorer Austin Edition, this app scans your iTunes library and suggest bands based on your tastes.

Droplat

This Android app creates sharing folders tied to every band at every stage. Check in to share photos, recordings and video with other users based on location.

Guessbook

This iOS app is a trivia game that plugs into Facebook to test your musical knowledge as well as how well you know your friends.

MyLollapalooza

Another festival guide for the mobile web featuring a map, band info, stage info and a survival guide.

Cellulight

It’s a lighter. On your Android phone.

Set Pickr

Guess which songs a band will play based on previous set lists, and compete against other players.

Veokami

Watch sets from Lolla 2011 — in the form of fan-sourced YouTube videos — from multiple angles. Tag and comment on videos, and share them with your friends.

Bandcast

Basically a group texting app for Lolla, Bandcast lets you send status updates, tips and private messages, share schedules, find friends, and connect with new friends by scanning their unique QR codes.

More About: HackLolla, Lollapalooza, music, music-hack

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