Wat’s on in the woods

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Data is not the first thing people think about when they hear the word Skanderborg Festival (also known as Smukfest). Skanderborg festival is a large music festival taking place every year in August in the woods outside the city of Skanderborg. Therefore, when people think of Skanderborg Festival there is a high probability that they think of intense concert experiences and warm summer nights. They might think of festival-loving people who enjoy the sun or defy the rain with a cold draft beer in their hand. However, in the midst of this seemingly analogue festival experience, vast amounts of data are created. This year IBM Denmark has joined forces with Skanderborg Festival to analyse and use this data to develop “tomorrow’s” festival experience.

Using technology to optimize the festival experience is by no means new to Skanderborg Festival. They have previously launched everything from chip bracelets to bartender robots, and therefore, the cooperation with IBM Denmark is a natural development. Skanderborg Festival has for many years collected data about the festival-goers’ purchasing patterns and habits. Using IBM’s Watson technology, existing data can now be combined with new data sources from, for example, motion and weather sensors. Watson’s ability to handle large data sets with many different data types from, such as, IoT devices will enable the team of Skanderborg Festival to take instant decisions based on real-time data. The use-cases are currently being developed but we are looking forward to the project where we will see how Watson , IoT  and Cloud can create a better festival experience.