Festival operations and portable work records
counts.
Run your festival crew, artist intake and live schedule in one place — then give the people who made it happen a verified record of their work.
Ran a real 499-capacity festival in July 2026 — Slipshod Gathering, Lincolnshire.
01The problem
The evidence disappears when the weekend ends.
Rotas live in spreadsheets. Swaps happen in WhatsApp. Artist details arrive through DMs. Crew chiefs remember who was brilliant, but that knowledge rarely leaves the field.
Deposits try to replace the missing trust. They mostly measure who can afford to float the money, not who will turn up.
50%
Volunteer no-show rate at Slipshod in 2025
£130
The deposit for a first-time volunteer with no history to show
Deposits are a tax on missing infrastructure.
02How it works
Start with the part of your event causing the most pain — crew or lineup. The same underlying record connects the rota, artist information and what people actually contributed, so nothing has to be rebuilt afterwards.
Shift created
Gate crew
2 of 4 filledFri 10 Jul · 14:00–18:00 · Main entrance
On the rota, clash-checked, still recruiting.
Shift completed
Gate crew
CompleteChecked in 13:52 · Finished 18:04
Logged by the event as it happened — not typed up afterwards.
Verified record
Slipshod Gathering 2026
Gate crew · 4 shifts · 16h
On the worker's pass, verified by the event, ready for the next one.
03The pilot
Lanyard was not tested in a demo environment. It ran the crew, the artist intake and the public timetable for a 499-capacity independent festival — Scholey Park, Lincolnshire, 10–12 July 2026. Every figure below was recorded by the product itself.
Read the full pilot case study
The 2026 crew, still here on Sunday.
No-shows, year on year
Two operating years, measured two different ways — 2025 counts people, 2026 counts shifts. Practical pilot indicators, not a controlled experiment.
Crew
Lineup and audience
04The product
The rota, the lineup and the work record finally agree.
01 · Workforce
02 · Lineup
Artists already create their own festival profile to populate the timetable. Over time, that becomes a verified history of where they performed. — In development
05Recognition
When the wristband comes off, the verified record remains.
The event verifies what happened: shifts completed, contributions made, recognition an organiser chose to give. The worker approves what appears on their record, and takes it to the next festival.
The pass · every cell is a verified shift
06How it is built
Each of these came out of a decision made on site, usually because the alternative had just gone wrong.
One instruction at a time, at a size you can read in daylight with wet hands.
The screens a crew member needs on site stay light enough to load on one bar.
A record of work done, not a game. Nobody is ranked against the person next to them.
Workers approve which positive recognition appears on their portable record. Operational problems stay with the event that recorded them.
07Who is behind it
I spent a decade designing digital products and live experiences. Then I started Slipshod Gathering and found myself running volunteers, artists, passes and schedules through disconnected tools.
Lanyard began as the system I needed in the field. Now I am working with other independent festivals to find out where it removes the most pain.
08Early access
Lanyard is currently working with a small number of independent UK festivals. Request access and Alex will reply personally — then help configure your event, onboard your team and decide which part of the platform is most useful to test first.
