A father of two from Gloucestershire is using his new tech platform Zapp Active to live stream activities and behind the scenes moments from the popular festival which takes on Friday May 24 to Sunday May 26.
Paul Harding, who lives in Lechlade yet runs his apps business from Swindon, has already won a major award for his innovative app for childminders and parents Kids Covered.
He’s now developing, with designer Matt Tyson, Zapp Active, a platform for communities to promote local events, activities, points of interest, the High Street and independent traders.
Paul has offered to support Lechlade Festival for free this year because of his love of live music and his home town and the surrounding area.
“I’m doing this for 2019 to test the platform and see how it works at a live event so record what’s behind the scenes as it happens. Any band, trader or individual or activity associated with the event can be featured and can even have its own page on the platform. I’m hoping this will significantly raise the festival’s profile.”
Jennie Rainsford, festival director, said: “We’re thrilled to support Paul with his new idea and it will interesting to see how people engage with the live festival news as it happens.
“We conscious of the fact many of our audience use apps and get their information on the move through smartphones – as a small team we haven’t got the capacity to manage this ourselves. Therefore it was obvious that working with Paul would help us start to engage in that modern manner.”
At the event, Paul and his team will take drone footage, interview performers, meet traders, activity organisers and give people a feel for what’s happening as it’s happens.
Paul’s innovative apps have already won him attention – his app Kids Covered which provides a news and booking system for childminders has recently been named the Most Innovative Tech Solution at the Swindon & Wiltshire Techies 2019 (May 9 2019).
Anyone interested in keeping up to date with what’s going at the Lechlade Festival this year can visit www.zappactive.com.
