Skedaddle, a Boston-based startup in the transportation space, just announced that it has partnered with massive music festival Bonnaroo, providing people a means to travel to and from the concerts this summer.
Bonnaroo attracts more than over 120,000 attendees from across the country each year. This year, Bonnaroo’s diverse lineup includes Pearl Jam, J.Cole, The Chainsmokers and Sam Hunt - just to name a few. But getting to the farm in Manchester, Tennessee, where the festival takes place, can be troublesome. Skedaddle, which provides "bus-pool" services to people traveling from the same place, to the same place, will be filling this gap by handling transportation for concertgoers.
"Any rider can start a route from their city if there are no routes that fit.”
“If successful, this will set the stage for a transformation in how people travel to and attend festivals, concerts and sporting events,” Adam Nestler, co-founder and CEO of Skedaddle, told us. “Bonnaroo has started nine routes from nine cities to kick it off. Any rider can start a route from their city if there are no routes that fit.”
“Bonnaroo is continuously looking to find ways to improve accessibility,” Nestler added. “The festival itself is located in a rural area that is often difficult to reach directly and affordably… Because we are able to provide transportation flexibly from many cities and help eliminate congestion and traffic, the partnership was a natural fit.”
Up until now, Skedaddle, which raised $1 million in angel funding in February, has only operated out of five select cities. That’s now changing and it’s taking its services to the national level in one fell swoop.
“We've been live in five cities: San Francisco, Boston, New York, Philadelphia and DC,” Nestler said. “However, we have 5xed in growth over the last five months and have figured out how to scale both the demand and supply side. Therefore, we are breaking away from expanding by city and are instead opening the entire U.S. This will put into place a rapid revolution in mass transit.”
Much of Skedaddle’s growth has come from word-of-mouth, according to Nestler. And now that the service is available nationwide, he’s expecting even more buzz.
“Riders love the experience of being able to access their favorite events, destinations and cities at a tap without a car,” explained Nestler. “Given the traction that we've seen in our current five cities, we expect to see a dramatic increase in riders and routes nationwide. We've had to turn people away over the last six months from other cities across the country looking to use our app.”
Images via Skedaddle.
