Festivals are society in miniature. They require food, drink, energy and shelter. And waste is produced. A living lab; the perfect place to test innovations. That's what Innofest does.
Innofest tests prototypes during eight prominent major festivals, such as Into the Great Wide Open and Oerol. The festival site thus becomes a living laboratory, designers gain an audience of millions, and prototypes can be extensively tested before going to market.
Can anything be said overarchingly about the services and products tested by Innofest? Yes there is! They are often young entrepreneurs who have come up with something new. Their innovation usually revolves around sustainable themes such as dealing with waste or recycling. Of course, an innovation has to lend itself to a festival. For example, LoQrs successfully tested a new type of lockers for festival visitors.
One of the first innovations to be tested at festivals was Jan Portheine's Kartent. A recyclable alternative to the cheap tents that festival-goers purchase, only to end up leaving them on the grounds. This idea has since grown into a business. What all has been tested recently? Noorderzon featured entrepreneur Peter Scheer. Under the guise of From Waste to Taste, he presented a system that converts urine into drinking water. A nice project because if successful in the future it can be used in refugee camps, for example. Whether it will catch on is exciting. Can festival visitors accept drinking their own urine?
Innovation and entrepreneurship are important pillars of Flinc. Flinc is therefore project partner of Innofest. From Flinc innovative start-ups are forwarded to Innofest and is a service or product successfully tested at festivals? Then Flinc can be the perfect place to guide the entrepreneur to funding to realize growth.