Festival Foresight · Festival operations
Housing a festival is a puzzle that reshapes itself every time you move a piece.
Festival Foresight is the live operations system behind the June Lake Jam Fest. It untangles the housing puzzle that used to tie up two people for the better part of a work-week, chases down everything fifteen bands still need to send, and keeps the whole event in one place. Built and donated to the June Lake Loop Performing Arts Association.
The problem
It's three-dimensional Tetris, and the blocks keep changing shape.
Fifteen bands. Some travel with family and need to stay together. There are no hotels — just a handful of small condos, heavy on couples' beds and short on singles. Fit one band and the next no longer fits. The festival used to solve this by hand across half a dozen spreadsheets: two people, the better part of a work-week of the kind of work that has your eyes rolling back after a few hours. And housing is only half of it — every band also has forms, a W-9, a stage plot, a roster, and dietary needs still to send, chased down one email at a time.
The hard part, solved
Every property you have, every bed it holds, and what's already taken — on one screen.
Festival Foresight lays out every available unit, the beds inside it, and which bands are already placed. It recommends a fit for each band with the reasoning written out — but the coordinator stays in control: browse every option, lock a band into a property, and if you want one that's taken, free it in a click and the puzzle re-solves around the change. The judgment stays human. The grind disappears.
The recommender reasons
- Their own place — no one else shares it
- A real bed for everyone — couples paired, no doubling up
- Fits the house — beds and max occupancy both clear
- Headliner → premium tier
- Too big for one → split across two cabins, kept together where it counts
→ Placed, with a reason you can read
The coordinator decides
- Lakeside CabinLocked
- Ridge HouseAvailable
- Knoll Avenue #6Taken
- Creek CabinAvailable
The coordinator sees every other home that would also work, locks one, and it goes off the board for every other band — instantly.
It reasons, it doesn't just match — so it runs on the full model, not a cheaper shortcut that can't carry the logic.
How it handles a property that's already taken
Housing is a shared pool — every lock ripples. When the unit you want is already held by another band, the system shows you exactly who has it. Free it there in a click and it drops back onto the board as available, so you can place it where it fits best — no untangling six spreadsheets to find out what moving one band breaks.
Why it runs on Claude
The rules a coordinator keeps in their head, written down and reasoned through.
These aren't lookups — they're the calls an experienced coordinator makes without thinking, now made explicit and reasoned through for every band. That's why it runs on the full model, not a cheaper shortcut that can't carry the logic.
The rules, reasoned every placement
- Each band gets its own place — no one else shares it.
- No one sleeps on a roll-out; kids only on a top bunk.
- Couples share a bed; no one else doubles up.
- A group too big for one house splits without scattering.
- Headliners get the premium units; preferred properties honored where they can be.
- When the beds don't match the people, the system works out who can flex where.
End to end
From the form a band signs to the message that tells them where to check in.
When a band signs their form, it lands in the system on its own — no one re-keys it, no one chases the paperwork into a spreadsheet. From there it knows exactly what each band still needs to send, and keeps asking until the gap closes. Once everyone's placed, each member and guest is assigned to their unit — so as the show gets close, they get their address, house rules, and check-in details. Meals and dietary needs flow to hospitality, partial-night stays and all — so no one is ever served something they can't safely eat.
Signed-form intake
LiveWhen a band signs their form, it lands in the system on its own — no one re-keys it, no one chases the paperwork into a spreadsheet.
Automated follow-up
LiveThe system knows exactly what each band still needs to send, and chases it down — attaching the blank W-9, pointing to a free stage-plot tool — until the gap closes.
Hospitality
LiveMeals and dietary needs tracked per person, partial-night stays and all — so the kitchen knows who's coming, and exactly what not to serve anyone with an allergy or restriction.
Vendors & volunteers
NextVendors and volunteers move onto the system next, once the band side is fully locked.
One system
Six spreadsheets, replaced by one connected system.
Performance slots, set times, stage plots, signed forms, W-9s, contracts, payments, raffle donations — every band's details in one record instead of scattered tabs. Bands, crew, VIPs, and festival staff all tracked the same way. Change one thing and everything that depends on it updates.
In use now
In use now. Growing every year.
Festival Foresight runs the band, lodging, and hospitality operation for the June Lake Jam Fest today, and it was built and donated in full to the June Lake Loop Performing Arts Association — the nonprofit behind the festival. Vendors and volunteers move onto it next. And Althea, the festival's callable AI guide — first run in 2025 — returns this season: call her for the lineup, set times, weather, and local tips, and she'll text the schedule straight to your phone.
Built and donated to the people who put on the show.