Help & FAQ

Getting started

1. Install Event Compass: Realm and open it. There's no account to create and nothing to sign into.
2. A short tour introduces the five tools. You can hop straight into the demo faire from the last slide to try everything, free.
3. Allow location when asked (optional, but it's the magic): if you're at or near a charted faire, the app walks you straight through its gates.

Choosing your faire

If you're not standing at a faire, you'll land on the map of the realm, a hand-drawn map of the United States with every faire we know of on it.

• Gold crest pins are Charted Faires: fully mapped, tap to enter.
• Tan pins are directory faires: tap for dates, address, website, and a notify me button. Tapping it matters, because we chart the faires people ask for.
• Change faires any time with the Change button at the top of any tab.

Using the map

• The map opens showing landmarks (stages and anchor points) so you can get your bearings without clutter. Every pin is placed as faithfully as we can chart it from the information the faire makes available.
• Use the category chips (Artisans, Food, Drink…) to reveal what you're hunting for, or open the Directory to search by name.
• Picking a booth from the Directory flies the map to it and opens its card. The pin stays lit after you close it, so you can walk to it.
• Pinch to zoom, drag to pan, and use the ＋ / － / ⤢ buttons; ⤢ resets to the full view. At very large faires, zoom in and the full booth detail reveals itself lane by lane.

Stage reminders

1. Open the Schedule tab to see every show on every stage, in time order, carried from the lineup the faire posts and refreshed through the season.
2. Tap the bell on any show and choose a 15- or 30-minute warning.
3. That's it. The alarm is scheduled on your phone itself, so it fires even with no signal. Belled shows also appear in My Pouch so your day's plan is in one place.

Allow notifications when the app asks, or the bells will have nothing to ring.

My Pouch

• Anywhere you see a vendor's card, on the map or in the directory, you can add them to your pouch.
• Use it as your "come back for this" list: the shoppe with the mug, the leatherworker two lanes over, the stage you promised to return to.
• The pouch lives only on your phone. There is no account and no cloud copy, and no one (including us) can see what's in it.
• What you saved stays yours to revisit after the faire closes.

Merchant's Row

• The fifth tab is the faire-wide who-sells-what search. Type the ware itself ("bodice", "dice", "mead") and every merchant that carries it appears.
• The search understands common synonyms, so a hunt for "cup" also finds the potters selling mugs.
• Tap the pin beside a shop's name and the map flies straight to its booth, drawer open. When a vendor has filled out their own profile, the drawer carries their story, wares, website, and social links as well. Until a vendor signs up, their card shows little more than the shop's name.
• Performers appear here too while their act is on the faire's posted schedule.

What works offline

Everything you need on the day, by design:

• The full map, all pins, the directory, and both searches (the Directory and Merchant's Row). The map is artwork stored in the app, not tiles from a server.
• The complete schedule and your reminders.
• Your entire pouch.
• The Herald as fetched on your last connection.

The app quietly refreshes whenever you do have signal. Open it on wifi the morning of the faire and you're set for the day.

Common questions