When the South Coast Wine Festival began, the founder had little experience with event technology. In its first year, the team introduced an event app to enhance the festival experience – giving attendees access to digital programmes, wine lists, and the ability to save their favourites.

The app was a hit with festival goers, and the team saw real potential to build on that success in year two by expanding their use of technology across registration, ticketing, and communication.

However, the second year brought new challenges. As the festival grew, managing funds throughout the year became increasingly important, especially when working with multiple suppliers and preparing for a multi-day live event.

One of the biggest benefits of switching to CrowdComms’ ticketing platform was instant access to ticket revenue, giving the team the ability to reinvest, plan ahead, and keep everything running smoothly right up to festival day.

“With our old platform, we had to wait until after the festival to access our money. That’s not sustainable when you need to pay suppliers or invest in growth throughout the year. CrowdComms was an obvious choice!”

As the event grew, the team also needed a more flexible platform – one that could handle real-time updates, host a digital wine list, allow attendees to save favourites, and reduce printed materials for greater sustainability.

The goal was clear: find a single, connected platform to manage registration, engagement, and reporting – without compromising the smooth, high-quality experience their audience had come to expect.