Trainline's ‘Friend Finder’ Helps Lost Festival Friends Reunite

When heading into the crowd at a music festival it's almost inevitable that friends will become separated from one another, having an impact on their festival experience. The stress of losing friend groups, missing a favourite band's performance and searching everywhere for friends can be both distracting and frustrating.

As part of Trainline’s ‘Great journeys start with Trainline’ platform, and in addition to helping people find the best trains for this weekend’s  Benicassim festival, they also helped them find their best friends. Trainline knows that great journeys are too precious to be made stressful by frantic texts and confusing meet-up locations. They wanted to minimise the stress and distraction of finding lost friends, so everyone can go back to doing what actually matters: enjoying the music and having fun with friends. 

‘Friend Finder’ was an activation at FIB Benicassim Festival created by DUDE London. By projecting festival-goers’ faces seven metres high in the sky, the Friend Finder helped to reunite lost friends, making them easily visible to everyone in the festival. Lost friends found their group by heading to the Trainline Friend Finder tent, where hosts assisted them in taking a photo in the photo booth and choosing an accompanying message to be projected onto a large LED screen high above the tent. For those who preferred not to have their face projected, they were able to instead print a personalised 40cm ‘High Head’ headpiece elevating their face above the crowd. The popularity of the headpieces took Friend Finder to every corner of the festival and gave revellers a fun photo opportunity.

A film promoting the activation ran on a loop on and around the various stages around the site and the Friend Finder was located at the Cutty Sark stage in the centre of the festival site.

Leah Knighton, international brand director at Trainline commented, "The use of a powerful insight and brilliant creative, to cut through and help change habits. Friend Finders brings together the love and energy of FIB Benicassim while showcasing Trainline to a huge and highly engaged audience and spotlighting the benefits of taking the train and using Trainline for always finding the most convenient combination."

Sophie Becker, creative at Dude London added, “To bring the ‘Great journeys start with Trainline' platform to life at Benicassim, we knew we had to create something new that would actually improve the festival experience. As someone who’s suffered from getting lost at music festivals my entire life, Friend Finder is exactly what is needed.” 

Spain has become a prime destination for festivals with around 200 festivals held there each year. Catalonia, Andalucia and Madrid host 45% of these which are all key destinations for Trainline customers. With a significant portion of festival-goers travelling by train, Trainline is an ideal partner for FIB Benicassim.