equ app plays major role in Edinburgh Fringe success

After an incredible three and a half weeks, showcasing 3535 shows from 72 countries and more than 60,000 individual performances, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival came to a close on August 28.

The end of the festival also marks a key milestone for the equ app which has played an essential role in improving the overall user experience of festival-goers.

Since launching in late July, just prior to the start of the festival, the app has seen more than 100,000 downloads, and accounted for more than 400,000 ticket sales directly through the platform.

Our entire equ team is incredibly proud to have been trusted to develop a platform that has become a central part of the world’s largest arts event.

Twice around the block

The opportunity to form a partnership with the Edinburgh Fringe Society arose from the experience, knowledge and partnership we have formed with Perth-based FRINGE WORLD over the past four years.

Whilst exciting, it was also incredibly challenging with Edinburgh’s long-term commitment to the platform creating an immediate need to address major design and technical challenges to meet the vastly increased scale of the event.

Edinburgh’s decision to use our app is particularly exciting as it will lead to significant economies-of-scale meaning there will be a greater ability to evolve and develop the product roadmap for the benefit of both festivals into the future.

As a result we believe many other festivals will also see the benefits of adopting apps for their events.

Open ticketing and event management systems used by many global festivals, particularly in the Fringe community, share many commonalities, which means the more partners that adopt a product the greater the ultimate investment in it, and benefits can be collectively shared.

First-hand experience

equ Directors, Warren Gibbs and Stephen Dodge, have just returned from experiencing the Edinburgh Fringe firsthand, and were blown away by what they witnessed.

It was incredible to see this event up close and understand how people explore, choose and book shows which are seemingly endless.

They said it is almost unimaginable that an event of this size, scale, energy and diversity could be navigated without the product and associated functionality of the equ app.

Amongst the many highlights of the trip was spending some time with Ed Fringe Society President, Phoebe Waller Bridge, who told them she was already a massive fan of the app, and particularly loved the shake to search function.

With the close of the festival, the equ team are ready to take a quick breath before looking forward to continuing the partnership with both the Perth and Edinburgh based teams.

In a sign of things to come, equ has already received approaches from a number of other large festivals who are keen to assess the suitability of adopting the app themselves.

Our goal now is to assess and plan how best to evolve and improve the app with the goal of developing a world-class product that will be seen as the benchmark for festivals around the world.