We got 3,500 suggestions that were 'liked' 18,500 times by 38,000 visitors. To steer the suggestions in the right direction we threw in the first idea – “a rap band’s reunion”. The gig wouldn’t have happened without the pressure of 645 'likes'. It gathered thousands of people around the venue that was meant for 200 people. It was the most talked about act of the festival whose line-up included Kanye West. Countless bootleg clips of the stage have tens of thousands of views on YouTube. Heineken sold more beer than ever before in the festival’s history.

Heineken Open Source Stage worked on open source principles and Facebook 'liking'. We managed to get our own application on the festival’s website for the program creation. Anybody could suggest anything and any suggestion could be Facebook 'liked' by anybody. We helped the creation get on the right tracks with a couple of our own ideas and our own “headmaster DJ”, who promoted the most interesting suggestions. People’s suggestions and 'likes' were seen in their Facebook feeds, which boosted the hype. We also did Facebook advertising and print advertising in hipster lifestyle magazines for the creation phase. At the actual festival the stage was placed next to the main stage for visibility and easy access. The acts performed between bands on the main stage.

The objective was to find a way for the beer sponsor to connect with the audience of a huge hipster festival. The hipsters don’t like to be told what is cool. So, we gave them the means to create the program of “Heineken Open Source Stage”. Anybody could suggest anything and any suggestion could be liked by anybody. The crowd helped Heineken to curate the content and create the hype around it. Despite being the beer partner of the festival, Heineken was not a big sponsor in terms of money spending. So, our goal was to create something so interesting that it would become part of the official festival program.