Because of when we launched SparqFest as a solution (mid-2020), many people think of us as a solution for online festivals. We initially built the software, however, to run a purely (at that time) in-person festival: Minnesota WebFest.

The software had three initial areas of focus:

• Get all the assets we need from filmmakers
• Help the jurors do their voting for awards online
• Serve as a single source of truth for the festival schedule of events

There was none of the online screening or live streaming functionality we have today.

Setup Your Venues

SparqFest lets you enter both practical and promotional information for each venue in your festival. You need set up each venue just once, and it can be referenced in as many events as appropriate from year to year. The practical information available on the web site includes the venue address and a list of events taking place at the venue. We also provide fields for capacity, room layout, and support for alcohol on premises to help you in event planning.

Beyond the practical information, each venue page is structured also as a promotional page. These venue pages elevate your venues almost to the level of sponsor and serve as a great tool for helping you solicit discounts from your venues.

Schedule Your Events

As you program your festivals, use our event planning functionality to create and schedule events and assign them to the proper venues. Each event allows you to create artwork specific to that event and go into detail on the schedule, location, and program of the event. For screenings, you also define what selections will be screened during the event.

Get Your Media to the Projectionist

If you take advantage of our cloud synchronization feature, we will stage the media assets for each in-person block in a folder in the screening order. You can then hand these block folders over to whomever is building your DCPs or BluRays for the projectionist.

Audience Choice Voting

As audience members attend different screenings, they receive credit for having watched each selection in that screening by scanning a QR code at the event or in the program. They can then participate in audience choice voting on your web site by selecting their favorite among the selections they have seen.