FoCoMX overtakes Fort Collins this weekend, with local bands packing into downtown venues and music spilling into the streets, sidewalks, and every open corner in between. Beyond the music itself though, the festival has become a quiet engine for experimentation, inspiring new ways for artists, audiences, and technologists to connect.
One example, whooz-next.com, is a lightweight, map-based companion app designed to solve the most common FoCoMX problem: figuring out who to see right now. The site lets users quickly see which artists are playing nearby, what’s starting in the next hour, and how those shows line up with their musical tastes.
The idea for whooz‑next emerged from firsthand experience navigating FoCoMX’s pace and scale. No matter how carefully you planned your schedule ahead of time, the reality of the festival quickly took over. One drink turned into two, friends clustered together at a venue, and suddenly the next show on your list was clear across town.
From the whooz-next creators’ perspective, FoCoMX needed location-aware information, delivered in the moment. They began working toward a solution on April 1. The creators quickly assembled a working prototype, the experience of which, they say, was eye-opening. For the first time, the exact user experience they wanted existed, right there in their hands.
Both founders were pleasantly surprised by how much control and clarity the app offered so early in the process. Certain features were non-negotiable: a live map to solve a time-sensitive, situational need; a “who’s up next” function to surface nearby shows starting soon; and genre-based filters that let users instantly identify artists they wanted to hear. Combined, those filters could answer a simple but powerful question: which bands, playing in the next hour, fit my taste and are close enough to reach?
One of defining choices made by the app’s creators is what whooz-next doesn’t do. It doesn’t ask for your data. There’s no login, no tracking, and no analytics designed to monetize attention or behavior. There is solely a link sharing feature to export your list between devices and to share with friends.
Today, where many tools are built to extract value from users, whooz-next is deliberately not “a way to get people to cough up their data,” the creators say, but a tool built entirely in service of the local Fort Collins music community.
Explore it at whooz-next.com.