First African and global festival deployment of n-gage.io’s attraction management platform and mobile app sets new benchmark for live events.
Cape Town, South Africa – 2025 – The Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF), Africa’s largest music event and known globally as “Africa’s Grandest Gathering,” has partnered with UK-based technology provider n-gage.io to digitally transform the way fans, artists, and sponsors experience the festival.
The 2024 edition marked a bold return for CTIJF after a pandemic hiatus, with organisers espAfrika embracing a new post-COVID strategy to connect with Festinos (fans) year-round, enhance on-site engagement, and deliver measurable value to sponsors. The collaboration with n-gage.io—its first-ever deployment in Africa and the first festival deployment worldwide—delivered a fully branded mobile app and powerful attraction management platform tailored to the festival’s needs.
A New Digital Era for “Africa’s Grandest Gathering”
Through its partnership with n-gage.io, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival was able to offer fans a far more connected and personalised festival journey than ever before. For the first time in the event’s history, digital ticketing was introduced, enabling audiences to store their passes directly in the app, reducing queues at entry points and supporting the festival’s drive towards greater sustainability. Visitors were able to navigate the multi-stage site with ease thanks to GPS and beacon-enabled interactive maps, ensuring smooth crowd flow between performances, food vendors, and key facilities.
Fans could also build their own personalised itineraries, exploring artists by stage, genre, or time slot, and receiving real-time push notifications to keep them on schedule. Artist profiles, media content, and soundtracks enriched discovery, generating pre-event excitement and keeping audiences engaged before, during, and after the festival. Importantly, sponsors were also able to reach festival goers in new and meaningful ways, using the platform’s tools to trigger activations, deliver rewards, and capture live insights into audience interactions. The app has since become a year-round communication channel, keeping Festinos informed with artist announcements, exclusive content, and promotional offers beyond the festival weekend itself.
Strong Results & Ongoing Impact
The deployment of n-gage.io’s platform delivered significant results. Thousands of downloads across mobile platforms reflected the strong appetite for a digital-first approach. More than half of users—52 percent—opted into the festival’s email database, substantially expanding CTIJF’s CRM reach. Over the course of the event, more than 54,000 push notifications were sent, connecting fans with artist updates, performance alerts, and exclusive offers in real time. The reliance on printed schedules and signage was reduced, with digital tools proving more flexible and environmentally friendly, while interactive maps eased visitor movement across the site. These innovations supported a more seamless experience for festival goers, improved sponsor ROI through targeted engagement, and gave organisers access to valuable data on audience behaviour, dwell times, and stage popularity.
Festival organisers praised the value of the new technology, describing the partnership as a step change in how CTIJF connects with its audiences and partners. “We’re excited to be partnering with n-gage.io whose highly customisable platform and mobile app allows us to digitally transform the festival experience, pre, during and post the event for our fans as well as our sponsors and partners,” said the CTIJF team. “It’s now possible to convey incredible content and interact with our fans in a way that suits them through a personalised experience made possible by next level data insights. When it comes to the festival itself, we’re really adding value to sponsors utilising the platform’s marketing tools to trigger reaction and engagement in real time, which makes it fun for our Festinos, rewards them and provides exceptional feedback to the sponsor. It’s a great opportunity for us and we look forward to engaging with our fans throughout this year and beyond as we gear up for a fantastic homecoming in 2026.”
A Milestone for n-gage.io
For n-gage.io, the CTIJF partnership represented an important milestone: its first live deployment in Africa and its first engagement with the global music festival sector.
Bryan Hoare, Founder and CEO of n-gage.io, commented:
“We’re proud to support such an iconic global festival in delivering a truly next-generation experience. From personalised itineraries and digital ticketing to live sponsor activations and deep audience insights, the Cape Town International Jazz Festival has shown how technology can reshape live events for fans, organisers, and partners alike.”
Looking Ahead
Following its successful debut in 2024 and ongoing use in 2025, the CTIJF app powered by n-gage.io will remain a cornerstone of the festival’s digital strategy. As CTIJF prepares for future editions, the platform will continue to drive engagement, unlock data-driven decision making, and strengthen connections between fans, artists, and sponsors.