This article was published on July 30, 2010

Town Plans Foursquare ‘Foxhunt’


Town Plans Foursquare ‘Foxhunt’

As Twitter started to grow in popularity we saw ‘Twestival’ meetup (or ‘tweetup’) events emerge. Maybe it’s a sign of Foursquare’s growth that a UK town is to host a ‘Foursquarestival’, although this is a little more interesting than just being a meetup – it’s a game created to showcase Foursquare’s potential.

Billed as a “Unique participatory event”, Foursquarestival players in the town of Cheltenham “will compete in a foxhunt that will lead them around points of artistic and cultural significance in the town, visiting independent traders along the way and finally finishing at a secret party location.”

The organisers tell us:

“On the event day participants (the ‘hounds’) will have to locate a series of ‘foxes – each one will provide a clue as to the location of the next. Each fox will stay at their location for a certain amount of time before moving on.

If the hounds turn up and the fox isn’t there, the manager/owner will hand over a clue or there will be a notification on the door that the fox has moved to a new location.”

The Cheltenham Foursquarestival has been organised by design agency managing director Andy Thorne and freelance PR Holly Knowlman. They say they’re running the game to test Foursquare’s potential as a tool for organising events and to promote some of their town’s “hidden wonders”.

As Foursquare has extended its userbase beyond early adopter geeks, businesses have been experimenting with uses for the service. Some, such as Brooklyn Museum have been particularly successful in engaging with their audiences via Foursquare.

Whether this Foursquarestival is a success or not, we’re likely to see more experimentation with location-based services around the world as they grow. There’s still a long way to go; figures earlier this week showed that despite the hype, very few people were aware of location based services.

If you’re in the Cheltenham area, the event takes place at 3.30pm on Saturday August 21st at Cheltenham’s Pittville Pump Rooms.

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