FestNorth

See Northeast music festivals by genre at a glance.

FestNorth is a dashboard for discovering and comparing popular music festivals across the Northeast United States. It helps fans, planners, and marketers quickly filter festivals by genre, date, location, and size so they can spot the best options without juggling multiple event sites.

Business Goals

  • Reach 10,000 monthly active users within 6 months of launch.
  • Achieve 25% week-4 retention by the end of the first quarter post-launch.
  • Convert 8% of monthly active users to email alerts or saved-festival accounts within 90 days.
  • Maintain source refresh accuracy above 95% for festival listings during the active festival season.
  • Drive 15% of traffic through organic search by month 6 using genre and city landing pages.

User Goals

  • Find relevant Northeast festivals in under 60 seconds.
  • Compare festivals by genre, date, city, and price range in one view.
  • Save a short list of festivals to revisit later.
  • Discover new festivals they would not have found through a single venue or promoter site.
  • Get notified when new festivals match their preferred genres and locations.

Non-Goals

  • Selling tickets directly inside the product in v1.
  • Covering festivals outside the Northeast United States in the initial release.
  • Providing full artist lineup prediction or recommendation scoring based on fan taste profiles.
  • Replacing official festival websites for final event details or ticket checkout.

Live Music Fan Jordan, 29 - Jordan follows indie rock, electronic, and jam band festivals and wants a faster way to browse options across several states. They care about dates, driving distance, and whether a festival matches their preferred sound.

Live Music Fan Jordan, 29

  • As a live music fan, I want to filter festivals by genre and month, so that I can quickly find events I actually want to attend.
  • As a live music fan, I want to compare two or three festivals side by side, so that I can decide which one is worth the trip.
  • As a live music fan, I want to save festivals and set alerts, so that I do not miss new announcements or lineup updates.

Marketing Coordinator Priya, 37 - Priya works for a regional brewery sponsor and needs a quick overview of which festivals align with brand fit, audience type, and timing. She wants a clean dashboard she can use in meetings without building spreadsheets.

Marketing Coordinator Priya, 37

  • As a marketing coordinator, I want to view festivals by genre and state, so that I can identify sponsorship opportunities quickly.
  • As a marketing coordinator, I want to export a filtered list, so that I can share targets with my team.
  • As a marketing coordinator, I want to see festival size and timing, so that I can prioritize events with the best audience reach.

Road Trip Planner Sam, 24 - Sam plans weekend trips with friends and needs to know which festivals are clustered by geography and dates. They value map-based browsing and simple sorting over deep industry detail.

Road Trip Planner Sam, 24

  • As a road trip planner, I want to see festivals on a map, so that I can plan a route across nearby cities.
  • As a road trip planner, I want to sort by distance from my location, so that I can find realistic weekend options.
  • As a road trip planner, I want festival cards with clear dates and genres, so that I can choose quickly without reading long descriptions.

Festival Aggregation and Ingestion · High priority

  • Collect and normalize Northeast festival listings from multiple public sources into a single searchable catalog.
  • Ingest from approved sources such as official festival sites, event platforms, and public RSS or calendar feeds.
  • Normalize each festival into a common schema with name, dates, city, state, venue, genres, price range, and source URL.
  • De-duplicate repeated listings by matching name, date window, and location.
  • Flag incomplete or stale records for manual review when key fields are missing.
  • Support daily refresh during peak season and weekly refresh in off-season.

Browse, Filter, and Search · High priority

  • Let users find festivals quickly by genre and Northeast geography.
  • Provide filters for genre, state, city, date range, price tier, and attendance size.
  • Support keyword search across festival name, venue, and lineup notes.
  • Offer default sorting by soonest date, then popularity or relevance.
  • Show zero-state guidance when filters return no results.
  • Keep filter state in the URL for shareable views.

Map and Comparison Views · High priority

  • Visualize festivals geographically and enable quick side-by-side comparison.
  • Render festivals on an interactive map of Northeast states with clustering for dense cities.
  • Allow users to select up to three festivals for a comparison panel.
  • Compare core attributes such as genre, dates, location, price range, and source link.
  • Handle overlapping dates and duplicate nearby venues without confusing the user.
  • Support mobile-friendly list view fallback when map interactions are limited.

Saved Lists and Alerts · Medium priority

  • Help users track festivals they care about and receive updates.
  • Allow signed-in users to save festivals to named lists such as Weekend Ideas or Sponsor Targets.
  • Send email alerts when a new festival matches saved filters or a saved festival changes date or lineup notes.
  • Provide lightweight account creation with email or Google login.
  • Let users unsubscribe or pause alerts from the email footer and account settings.
  • Store alert preferences separately from browsing history.

Editorial Context and Trust Signals · Medium priority

  • Add enough context to make listings trustworthy without replacing official sources.
  • Display source attribution and last refreshed timestamp on every festival card.
  • Show a confidence indicator for records with incomplete fields.
  • Provide short genre tags derived from source data and manual curation.
  • Link out to official festival websites for ticketing and final details.
  • Use a small editorial note when a listing is seasonal, rumored, or pending confirmation.

Fast Discovery Onboarding

  • Land on a Northeast festival dashboard with popular genres and state shortcuts.
  • Choose one or more genres such as indie, electronic, hip-hop, jazz, or jam.
  • Select a date window or season, with a default view of the next 90 days.
  • Optionally allow location access to rank nearby festivals first.
  • See matching festivals on the map and list within 10 seconds of first interaction.
  • Save a filter or festival after the first useful result appears.

1. Open the Dashboard

  • Users arrive on a visual overview that immediately shows live festival density across the Northeast.
  • Default state is a combined map and ranked list with the next upcoming festivals.
  • If data is still loading, show skeleton cards and a visible refresh timestamp.
  • If no location permission is granted, fall back to state-based ranking without blocking access.

2. Apply Genre and Location Filters

  • Users narrow the catalog by genre, state, city, and date range.
  • Filters update results instantly without full page reloads.
  • Invalid date ranges are corrected with inline guidance and an easy reset option.
  • If a genre has sparse results, show adjacent genres as suggestions rather than empty dead ends.

3. Inspect Festival Cards

  • Users scan compact festival cards to understand fit at a glance.
  • Each card shows name, dates, city, state, primary genres, and source freshness.
  • A card expands for venue, price band, approximate size, and official link.
  • If any field is unknown, display it as unavailable instead of guessing.

4. Compare and Save

  • Users shortlist their best options and save them for later.
  • Comparison supports up to three festivals with aligned attributes.
  • Saved items persist to the user account or local storage for anonymous users.
  • If the user is not signed in, prompt them to create a lightweight account before enabling alerts.

5. Set Alerts and Revisit

  • Users get notified when relevant festival data changes or new matches appear.
  • Offer alert types for new matching festivals and updates to saved festivals.
  • Email notifications include a clear reason for the match.
  • Users can manage all alerts from one settings page with immediate unsubscribe.

Power User Features

  • Export filtered results to CSV for planning, partnerships, or internal sharing.
  • Create multi-genre saved searches such as indie plus electronic within New England.
  • Switch between map, list, and compact comparison layouts.
  • View festival clusters by metro area such as Boston, New York, Providence, Portland, and Philadelphia.
  • Surface edge-case handling for multi-day cross-state events and festivals with changing names or dates.

Clear, Fast, Accessible Visualization

  • Use a high-contrast color system where genre tags are distinct but not overwhelming.
  • Keep the map interactive but never required; all actions must be usable from the list view.
  • Ensure keyboard navigation, screen-reader labels, and focus states across filters and cards.
  • Prioritize fast load times with lazy-loaded map components and virtualized lists for large result sets.
  • Show trustworthy freshness cues such as refreshed date, source link, and confidence marker.

Jordan loves indie rock and electronic festivals, but every spring they end up bouncing between half a dozen event websites, social posts, and ticket pages. They know the Northeast has plenty of options, yet it is hard to see what is happening in Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, and nearby states without building their own spreadsheet.

With FestNorth, Jordan opens one dashboard, selects indie and electronic, and instantly sees the strongest matches on a map and ranked list. In under a minute, they compare three festivals, save two to a shortlist, and set an alert for new announcements. The result is a better planning experience for Jordan and more repeat visits for the product as new festivals are added and alerts bring users back.

User-Centric Metrics

  • Median time from landing to first relevant festival view under 60 seconds.
  • At least 40% of active users use filters beyond the default view.
  • At least 30% of users who save a festival return within 14 days.
  • Alert click-through rate above 20% for saved-search notifications.
  • User-reported festival relevance rating of 4.2 out of 5 or higher.

Business Metrics

  • 10,000 monthly active users by month 6.
  • 25% week-4 retention among registered users.
  • 8% conversion from monthly active users to saved lists or alerts.
  • 15% of traffic from organic search by month 6.
  • 3% of users sharing filtered views or exported lists monthly.

Technical Metrics

  • 99.5% monthly uptime for the dashboard and APIs.
  • P95 page interaction latency under 300 ms after initial load.
  • Festival data refresh success rate above 95% per scheduled job.
  • Zero critical security incidents and all auth tokens encrypted at rest.

Tracking Plan

  • Track page_view_dashboard when a user lands on the main map and list view.
  • Track filter_applied with genre, location, and date parameters.
  • Track festival_card_opened when a user expands a listing for details.
  • Track compare_added and compare_removed when users manage the comparison set.
  • Track festival_saved when a user bookmarks a festival.
  • Track alert_created and alert_updated when saved searches or notifications are configured.
  • Track outbound_click_official_site when users leave for the festival source or ticket page.

Technical Needs

  • Frontend built with Next.js and React for server-side rendering and SEO-friendly festival pages.
  • Backend API layer in Node.js or TypeScript with REST or tRPC endpoints.
  • PostgreSQL for normalized festival, genre, location, user, and alert data.
  • Background jobs using a queue such as BullMQ or Temporal for ingestion and refresh workflows.
  • Interactive maps using Mapbox GL JS or Google Maps Platform.
  • Search indexing with PostgreSQL full-text search or Elasticsearch if catalog size grows significantly.
  • Deployment on Vercel for frontend and managed cloud infrastructure such as AWS or Render for APIs and workers.

Integration Points

  • Official festival websites as the primary source of truth for links and event details.
  • Ticketing sources such as Eventbrite, AXS, or Ticketmaster where publicly accessible.
  • Google OAuth or Auth0 for lightweight user sign-in.
  • Email delivery through SendGrid or Postmark for alerts and updates.
  • Map tile and geocoding services such as Mapbox for location rendering.

Data Storage & Privacy

  • Store only minimal account data for alerts, such as email address, display name, and preferences.
  • Encrypt sensitive data at rest and use HTTPS everywhere in transit.
  • Respect GDPR and CCPA requirements for consent, data export, and account deletion.
  • Keep source URLs and refresh timestamps to support transparency and dispute resolution.
  • Avoid storing unnecessary personal location history; if location is used, keep only coarse city or state unless the user opts in.

Scalability & Performance

  • Cache common genre and state filter results to keep repeated views fast.
  • Use pagination or virtualization for long festival lists and search results.
  • Load map assets lazily so list browsing stays responsive on slower devices.
  • Run ingestion jobs off-peak and retry failed source fetches with exponential backoff.

Potential Challenges

  • Festival data may be inconsistent across sources; mitigate with a normalization pipeline and manual review queue for low-confidence records.
  • Official sites may change layouts or block scraping; mitigate by preferring APIs, RSS feeds, and partner-friendly sources first.
  • Duplicate or conflicting listings can confuse users; mitigate with de-duplication rules and visible source attribution.
  • Map performance may degrade with many points; mitigate with clustering, viewport-based loading, and a list fallback.
  • Alert relevance could suffer if genres are too broad; mitigate with curated genre taxonomy and user-editable saved filters.

Team & resourcing - Small team - 2 engineers, 1 designer, part-time PM, and shared data/content support

Phase 1: MVP Catalog and Browse · Weeks 1-4

  • Normalize the Northeast festival data model.
  • Launch searchable list view with genre, state, and date filters.
  • Add festival detail cards with source links and freshness timestamps.
  • Ship basic responsive UI and SEO-friendly landing pages.

Phase 2: Map and Comparison · Weeks 5-7

  • Add interactive Northeast map with clustering.
  • Build compare mode for up to three festivals.
  • Improve filter persistence in the URL and mobile layout.
  • Add empty states, loading states, and error handling.

Phase 3: Saved Lists and Alerts · Weeks 8-10

  • Implement user accounts with email or Google login.
  • Add saved festivals, saved searches, and email alerts.
  • Create notification settings and unsubscribe controls.
  • Instrument analytics events and basic admin review tools.

Phase 4: Growth and Quality · Weeks 11-14

  • Launch export to CSV and shareable filtered views.
  • Add organic search landing pages by genre and city.
  • Improve data refresh automation and duplicate detection.
  • Run accessibility audit, performance tuning, and source-quality monitoring.

Paste this into Cursor, Bolt, Lovable, or v0 to start building.

Build FestNorth, a responsive web app that aggregates popular music festivals in the Northeast United States and visualizes them by genre, date, location, and size.

Core product:
Users land on a dashboard with a map of Northeast states and a searchable festival list. They can filter by genre, state, city, date range, price tier, and attendance size; compare up to 3 festivals; save festivals and saved searches; and receive email alerts when a new matching festival appears or a saved festival changes.

Primary screens/flows:
1) Dashboard with map + list + filter panel
2) Festival detail drawer/page with source link, freshness timestamp, venue, dates, genres, price band, size, and notes
3) Compare view for up to 3 festivals
4) Saved lists and alert settings
5) Admin/content review view for low-confidence or duplicate records

Data model:
Festival(id, name, slug, description, startDate, endDate, city, state, venue, genres[], priceRange, attendanceRange, sourceName, sourceUrl, lastRefreshedAt, confidenceScore, isSeasonal, officialWebsiteUrl)
User(id, email, displayName, authProvider)
SavedFestival(id, userId, festivalId, savedAt)
SavedSearch(id, userId, name, filtersJson, alertEnabled, createdAt)
AlertEvent(id, userId, type, payloadJson, createdAt, readAt)
SourceRecord(id, sourceName, sourceUrl, fetchedAt, rawPayloadJson, parseStatus)

Suggested stack:
Next.js 14 with TypeScript, React, Tailwind CSS, PostgreSQL, Prisma, server actions or tRPC, Mapbox GL JS, NextAuth or Auth0, SendGrid or Postmark, and background jobs with BullMQ. Use Vercel for frontend deployment and a managed Postgres host.

Implementation requirements:
Make the app SEO-friendly with server-rendered genre and city pages. Support responsive mobile list-first browsing, accessible keyboard navigation, screen-reader labels, and fast load times. Use source attribution and freshness timestamps on every listing. Include robust empty/loading/error states. Build the ingestion layer so festival data can be refreshed daily and de-duplicated by name/date/location. Keep the UI clean, modern, and highly visual, with strong genre tags and map clustering.

Business Idea

I want to build a dashboard that pulls popular music festivals in the Northeast and visualizes them for me so I can see, by genre, different music.

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