CASE STUDY PUBLISHED 2023

Humber Street Sesh

A Progressive Web App bringing a real-time timetable, personalised schedules and paperless access to Hull's biggest grassroots music festival — celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2023

PROJECT SUMMARY

Sauce designed and built the official Humber Street Sesh app for the festival's landmark 10th anniversary in 2023 — a Progressive Web App giving tens of thousands of festival-goers instant access to a live event timetable, a personalised schedule builder and real-time programme updates, all without needing to download a native app.

The platform replaced printed programmes with a QR-code-accessible digital experience, directly supporting the festival's sustainability commitments while improving audience engagement. It was built to scale alongside the festival in future years — continuing a long-running partnership between Sauce and one of the North of England's most celebrated grassroots music events.

CLIENT

Humber Street Sesh

SECTOR

Events / Live Music / Arts

PLATFORM

Progressive Web App (PWA)

STATUS

Live

THE BUSINESS CHALLENGE

A growing festival — with a digital experience that hadn't kept pace

Humber Street Sesh is one of the UK's most beloved grassroots music festivals, held annually along Humber Street in Hull's old fruit market quarter. Since its founding in 2013 it has championed emerging musicians, artists and creatives from Hull, the wider Yorkshire and Humber region, and beyond — drawing large crowds across multiple stages over a single packed summer day.

For its 10th anniversary in 2023, the festival team had ambitions that went beyond the stage programme. They wanted to modernise how attendees experienced the event digitally, reduce the environmental cost of mass-printed programmes, and deepen engagement with the audience in real time.

Having already worked with Sauce on previous Sesh events, the team returned with a clear set of objectives for 2023:

Simplify how attendees discovered and navigated a complex multi-stage, multi-act timetable across the festival site
Give festival-goers the ability to build their own personalised schedule and receive real-time programme updates on the day
Eliminate the need for printed programmes — reducing paper waste in line with the festival's environmental commitments
Ensure the digital experience was frictionless: accessible instantly on-site without requiring a full app download
Build a scalable platform that could grow and evolve with the festival in future editions

THE PROCESS

Built on an established partnership — and shaped around how festival audiences actually behave

The Sauce and Humber Street Sesh teams have worked together across multiple festival editions, which meant the 2023 project could move quickly from brief to build. With shared context already in place, the team focused its early energy on the right questions: how do people actually navigate a multi-stage festival? At what moment do they check their phone? What makes them abandon an app mid-crowd?

Those questions shaped every design decision. The timetable layout was designed for quick scanning rather than deep reading — optimised for someone standing in a crowd, in variable lighting, with limited patience. The QR access model was chosen specifically because requiring an app download at a live event creates a drop-off point Sauce wanted to eliminate entirely.

The PWA approach also gave the festival team a significant operational advantage: programme changes could be pushed live in real time, without waiting for an app store update cycle or relying on attendees to manually refresh cached content.

THE SOLUTION

A Progressive Web App built for the realities of a live festival environment

The Humber Street Sesh PWA Sauce delivered is a fully dynamic, real-time festival platform — accessible instantly via QR code from any smartphone browser, with no installation required. The full-view timetable gives attendees a clear picture of every act, across every stage, for the entire day — with the ability to build and save a personal schedule for quick reference throughout the event.

Real-time update functionality means the festival operations team can push changes live as they happen — critical at a large outdoor event where set times, stage moves and last-minute changes are a practical reality. The experience is fully responsive across mobile and tablet, designed to perform reliably under the connectivity conditions typical of a high-attendance outdoor venue.

Alongside the core development, Sauce provided strategic UX and sustainability advice — ensuring the solution was not only technically robust, but genuinely served the festival's broader ambitions for audience experience and environmental responsibility.

THE RESULTS

A digital success for the Sesh's 10th year — and a platform built to grow

The 2023 app launched to strong audience uptake and positive festival feedback. The QR-code access model proved highly effective on-site, removing the download barrier that typically limits digital adoption at live events. The real-time update capability was used throughout the day to keep the programme accurate as the festival unfolded.

Critically, the platform was designed from the outset to scale — giving the Humber Street Sesh team a reusable foundation to build on for future editions, rather than a one-year solution that would need rebuilding from scratch.

Progressive Web App

Delivered as a PWA — giving a full app experience without requiring a native install from the App Store or Google Play.

QR-code access across the site

Attendees reached the app instantly by scanning codes in festival zones — zero download friction at the point of entry.

Real-time programme updates

The festival team could push live changes throughout the day — set times, stage info and updates delivered instantly to all users.

Personalised schedule builder

Festival-goers built their own day plan directly in the app, reducing reliance on static printed timetables.

Printed programmes eliminated

Replacing paper programmes with a comprehensive digital alternative directly reduced the festival's print and waste footprint.

Scalable for future editions

The platform architecture was built to grow — giving the Sesh team a reusable, updatable foundation for years to come.

THE CLIENTS VERDICT

"The interactive app will really enhance the festival experience; it’s very easy to use with all information, at your fingertips"

- Mark Page - Festival Director

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