A few weeks ago I got the email that our vendor application was approved for Boulder Creek Festival. I read it twice. Then I walked out to the garage, looked at the half-built 10×10 tent setup, the boxes of wristbands, and the stack of QR stickers I'd been hand-cutting on a Cricut after the kids went to bed, and thought: okay, this is real now.
Boulder Creek Fest is my first booth. It's the first time a stranger will walk up to myScanBandz in person, pick up a wristband, and decide whether the story I've been telling online holds up when I'm standing three feet in front of them. That's a big deal for a business that's been living on a Shopify store and an Instagram account. But the real reason this festival matters to me is simpler than that.
I grew up in Boulder. And I grew up going to this festival.
It's Exactly the Environment I Built This For
If you've never been, picture it: three days of live music, food vendors packed shoulder to shoulder along the creek, thousands of families weaving through the crowds, kids on dads' shoulders, strollers, dogs, face paint, one of those inflatable rock walls, the smell of kettle corn. Beautiful. Loud. Chaotic.
And if you're a parent, you know the feeling. You lose visual contact for four seconds and your heart stops.
That feeling — that specific four-second spike of panic in a crowd — is the entire reason myScanBandz exists. I wrote about where it started in Opening Weekend at Coors Field — a packed stadium, my kids, me tracking positions in my head instead of watching the game. I came home and started building.
Boulder Creek Fest is Coors Field with better weather. It's the same problem wearing a different shirt. It's also the same environment I wrote about in concert season and outdoor festival chaos a few weeks back — the surge forward when the opener starts, the lost-visual-contact moment, the part where your heart drops for half a second before you find them again.
Which is why when I imagine handing a wristband to a Boulder mom who's about to take her four-year-old into a festival crowd for the first time — that's the exact customer, in the exact moment, that this was made for.
It Already Works — Here's How I Know
I don't just think this product works. I've watched it work. I told the whole story in A Stranger Scanned My Son's Helmet at Snowmass — a busy day on the mountain, a helmet that went one direction while my son went another, a total stranger who scanned the QR code, and a phone call that put everything back together in under ten minutes. That post is the reason I'm confident standing in a booth in Boulder telling a skeptical parent this actually does what I say it does. It already has.
Why Boulder, Specifically — It's Home
I grew up here. Boulder is where I was a kid running through crowds at this same festival, back when Creek Fest was a smaller thing and my parents were the ones keeping one eye on me. I have memories of the booths along the creek, the music echoing off the Flatirons, kettle corn, the whole thing. Decades later, I'm the dad now, and I'm going to be standing in one of those booths with my own kids' faces in mind.
That's not a marketing angle. That's just true.
There's something about launching a product for the first time, in person, in the town you grew up in, at the festival you grew up going to. It feels right in a way I didn't fully appreciate until the approval email came through.
The Other Thing I Didn't Expect — The Support
When I started telling people what I was doing, friends I grew up with in Boulder came out of the woodwork. Guys I played sports with in high school. Neighbors I hadn't talked to in years. People who live in town now with their own kids. The response has been "let me know when you need help," over and over again.
I didn't expect that. I think I assumed I'd be showing up at this festival solo, introducing myself to strangers, and explaining what a QR wristband does. Instead, I'm going to be there with a built-in support system of people who already know me — some of whom will probably stop by the booth just to give me a hug and buy a wristband for their kid because they want to see this thing work.
That's the part of the story I didn't plan for. It's also the part I'm most grateful for.
What You'll Find at the Booth
If you're going to Creek Fest on Saturday May 23, here's what's coming with me:
- The full wristband lineup — Ski Patrol, Sports, Rainbow Fun, Let's Go, and Mountain Fun. Hard PVC, kid-proof, QR printed on a smartcard insert.
- Gear tag sticker variety packs — for helmets, water bottles, ski bags, backpacks, cleats, anything your kid carries and forgets.
- Live scan demo. You'll see exactly what happens when someone scans a wristband. It takes about ten seconds. That's the whole pitch.
- Free stickers. Bring the kids.
Why It Matters to Me, Personally
I'll be honest — this festival is the first time I've put real skin in the game with this business in a way that's visible to other people. The tent, the banner, the insurance, the sales tax license, the inventory in the back of the car — it's all bought and paid for and sitting in the garage waiting for May 23.
That's exciting and it's also terrifying. Starting a Shopify store in your basement is one thing. Driving to Boulder and setting up a ten-foot square of real estate with your logo on it is a different kind of commitment.
But it's the right next step. I've talked to parents online for six months about why this product exists. Now I want to hand it to them. I want to watch a kid try one on and tell me which design is their favorite. I want to answer questions from a mom who's skeptical until she sees the scan work in real time. That's how a brand actually gets built — not through ad impressions, but through one conversation at a time.
If you're a Boulder local, a Front Range parent, an old friend from back in the day, or anyone who's going to Creek Fest that weekend — come find us. I'll be the guy in the navy myScanBandz shirt looking slightly overwhelmed but genuinely glad you stopped by. If we went to school together, stop by and say hi. If we didn't, stop by anyway.
And if you can't make it but the story resonates, the full product lineup is here. Registration takes two minutes. Scan, register, go in confident.
Boulder Creek Festival — May 23, 2026. Booth details coming on Instagram the week of the event. Follow @myscanbandz for booth location and weekend updates.