chubes

@saraichinwag i guess i could do something like a customizable, automated newsletter where users can select which festivals or locations they want to receive updates from and then they will get a roundup every week of posts about that festival, or something similar.

the thing is, it would take me a solid amount of time to develop this, and right now i’m just working on getting the word out to the initial users looking for music festival news

do you think Festival Wire is the best source for music festival news on the web? can you think of any other sources that might top it? we are basically competing directly with Festive Owl, who is much more established but only uses social media

here at Extra Chill, we have a whole universe for music festival fans. we are just still relatively underground and not widely known. we have a strong niche following that has grown significantly over the years, and we keep expanding the platform to appeal to more and more people

 

yeah, @saraichinwag i guess you’re right. a lot of people are looking for something like a festival newspaper or wondering where can i get a news feed for music festivals. we are definitely solving that specific problem with the Festival Wire!

it’s a great place to get the latest music festival news, and the volume is not something that a human editorial team can keep up with

i talk about api costs, but in reality it costs me about $2 per day to run right now. that isn’t so bad, especially if we are able to spread the word to fans of music festivals who are looking for news

it’s the perfect solution for them!

I will be headed back to Bonnaroo this year!

Getting a media pass to Bonnaroo has been one of my long-term goals with Extra Chill for years. I have now achieved that goal.

Bonnaroo has shaped my view of the world in a lot of different ways. I’m excited to write about it and share with y’all.

The first time I went to this festival I was just a kid, 2017, not long after college. I had the time of my life with three of my best friends. We went three years in a row, and then the pandemic fast-forwarded time, and life changed.

6 years have passed since I’ve been back, and now I’m at a point where I’ve interviewed several bands on the lineup, and it’s cool to see Extra Chill’s growth.

I could write a whole lot more about it but just know that I’ll be using this space to share my experience before writing the official Extra Chill review.

Chime in if you’re going to Bonnaroo too! Or if you just love the festival like I do. Cheers!

@saraichinwag oh we do indeed have a filter, both for festival name and location, both of which are implemented via custom taxonomies right now. this provides some lightweight personalization which is solid

i also have it posting automatically to facebook now

and i skipped the fact check on the social media posts to cut back on costs

otherwise, i am considering even this very forum topic to be a decent way to spread the word, because we are talking about how the system works right here in public

do you have any more ideas to really enhance the system to be the best music festival news source on the web? and to attract more and more users?

get really creative, business and seo minded, and let me know what you come up with

@saraichinwag I had not considered personalization, but with this forum it does lay the groundwork for that. i could look into creating a system to personalize it. but i do think that would come later, after we get some more people using it, if they even will use it

the api costs to run it are definitely not cheap, especially in regards to the search tool calls. i did implement a method to disable the fact check (search) step on a module by module basis. this could help me cut costs even more if i keep lessening the use of that tool.

the problem is, the search adds context and makes the information much more valuable, so we don’t want to eliminate it completely

overall we are about breaking even on api costs to run this, so the traffic would ideally improve to help mitigate that

there are lots of music festival fans out there, we just have to get the word out

@saraichinwag what do you think of the Festival Wire? how do you think we could attract more people who are interested in the latest music festival news, announcements, updates, and rumors, to discover, bookmark, and share festival wire? ultimately, we would like them to also join the forum

thoughts, ideas, questions?

Here is one, a terrible design. Very hard to read

 

 

Here is Extra Chill’s official review of High Water 2025. Written by Grace Kreider. With photos from Grace and Maren:

https://extrachill.com/high-water-festival-2025-photos-review

Cheers everybody. Looking forward to next year’s lineup drop and hope to make it back to Charleston for the show.

@saraichinwag did you see what Sarah asked? what do you think of the new song and video

@jollymonster (typo in the name at first, thanks for testing it)

Wanted to circle back here to share Extra Chill’s latest article about Wilmot and their new single, “Daydream”

They’re opening for Stop Light at the Windjammer on May 31st.

https://extrachill.com/introducing-wilmot-daydream

@mister-morning Who took those photos you posted? i can post them on our IG

Wait til you see what i’m about to do to this place. Big update coming soon here that will make it way better for artist promo

@saraichinwag what do you think about the progress we have made here?

as you can see, you are properly created, so that is great. what else do you think about this?

Here are some photos from High Water 2025 on our photographer’s instagram pages

The Backseat Lovers (@marenmcgphoto)

the rest from @gracekreiderphoto

Easy Honey

Joy Oladokun

Julien Baker & Torres

Mt. Joy

More to follow!

@rconley88 I heard Flipturn’s set was great! @qrisg mentioned that to me. I’ve never been a huge Flipturn fan but I also haven’t seen them since probably 2018-2019. They played at Royal a few times back in the day!

Glad you had a great time at the Fest and thanks so much for joining the community.

@timayarlay definitely let me know if you ever make it out here!

Far Out Lounge is right near my house, although I unfortunately wasn’t able to make it to psych fest.