Beacon 42

Beacon 42 is the Krewe’s parade-day companion app: the procedural handoff between the membership platform and the parade itself. Where Krewebacchus runs the membership lifecycle — dues, subkrewes, profiles, the long tail of administrative business — Beacon 42 covers the day the parade actually rolls.

The problem the app addresses is, on its surface, mundane: several thousand revellers organised into dozens of subkrewes, attempting to assemble in roughly the same place at roughly the same time, while the Overlords coordinate against a moving target of contraptions, music acts, and the inevitable last-minute updates. The app gives every member their own piece of the operational picture, and gives the coordinators a way to push the picture around as it changes.

What the app does

• Droid Collar QR code. Each member’s unique QR is visible inside the app, ready to present at the pickup tent for their wristband. (The same QR is also available at krewebacchus.org.)
• Lineup placement, in real time. The Overlords publish the lineup ahead of parade day, but the lineup is a live thing — contraptions get reassigned, captains get stuck in traffic, subkrewes get re-zoned at the eleventh hour. Beacon 42 reflects each change as it happens, so members are looking at the current placement rather than the version printed last week.
• Push notifications. The Overlords’ direct channel for lineup updates, route changes, and the occasional emergency message. Notifications are scoped tightly — the app is not a venue for general Krewe chatter.
• Optional location sharing. Members may opt into real-time location sharing with the parade coordinators. Location is visible to admins only, never to other members; switchable on or off at any time.

Privacy and access

Login requires a Krewebacchus account. Anyone without a valid member account cannot get past the login screen — the app is, by design, members-only.

Location sharing is entirely opt-in. When it’s off, no GPS data is collected or transmitted. When it’s on, location is used solely for parade-day coordination and is not retained after the event. Push-notification tokens are used exclusively for Krewe communications and are not shared with third parties.