The fine print

1. Booking a seat

• Gatherings are deliberately small. Most have 15 seats, and once they are gone, they are gone.
• Your seat is held for a short while as you pay. If payment is not completed in that time, the seat goes back to whoever wants it next.
• A booking is confirmed only when payment succeeds and we email you a pass. If you do not get that email, check your spam folder, then write to us.
• Each pass carries a QR code and admits one person. If you book several seats, each guest gets their own pass.
• You can give us a first name for each guest so we can make name cards. Only share someone else’s details if they are happy for you to.

2. Prices and payment

• Prices are in Indian Rupees and include everything you need for the session unless the gathering page says otherwise.
• Payments are taken by Cashfree Payments. We never see or store your card, UPI or bank details.
• The price you pay is the one shown when you book. If we change a price later, it does not affect a booking already made.

3. If you can’t make it

You can move your booking to another date or cancel it yourself, using the “Can’t make it?” link on your pass or in your ticket email. The cut-off times, the refund amount and how many times you can move a booking are set out in full in our Refunds and cancellations policy, which forms part of these terms.

4. If we change or cancel a gathering

• Occasionally we have to change the time, the venue or the host. We will tell you by email as soon as we know.
• If we cancel, you get a full refund to the way you paid.
• If we move a gathering to another date, your pass carries over. If the new date does not suit you, ask us for a refund within 48 hours of us telling you.
• We are not able to cover travel, accommodation or any other costs you arranged around a gathering.

5. Who can come

• Gatherings are intended for people aged 18 and over. Someone younger is welcome if an adult books for them and stays with them, unless a gathering page says otherwise.
• Some gatherings use tools, heat, solvents or other materials that are not suitable for young children. If you are unsure, ask us before booking.
• If you have an allergy or a health condition that the materials or the venue might affect, tell us before you book so we can say honestly whether we can look after you.

6. At the gathering

• Come as you are, and let everyone else do the same. We do not accept harassment, discrimination or behaviour that makes the room feel unsafe.
• We may ask someone to leave if their behaviour affects other guests, the host or the venue. In that case there is no refund.
• Please follow the venue’s own rules. Many of our gatherings are hosted in someone else’s space.
• Your belongings are your own responsibility. Neither we nor the venue can look after them for you.
• Take home what you make. We cannot store finished pieces, and anything left behind for more than two weeks may be given away or thrown out.

7. Photos and filming

We often photograph or film our gatherings, and we may use those images on this website, in emails and on social media to show what MakeWave is like. If you would rather not appear, tell the host when you arrive and we will keep you out of shot, or remove an image later if you ask. Write to help@makewave.in and we will take it down.

Please ask the people around you before you photograph or film them, and do not share images of other guests without their agreement.

8. Your pass

• If you cannot come, you are welcome to send a friend in your place. Just forward them your pass and tell us the name change if you can.
• Do not sell a pass on, or offer one as part of anything commercial, without asking us first.
• A QR code admits one person once. Treat it like a ticket: if you post it publicly and someone else uses it, we cannot give you another seat.

9. This website

The words, photographs, illustrations and design on this site belong to MakeWave or to the people we licensed them from. You are welcome to read, share links and print things for your own use. Please do not copy, republish, sell or redistribute material from the site without asking us.

We embed Google Maps so you can find a venue. Google’s own terms and privacy policy apply to that map.

We do our best to keep dates, prices and details accurate, but the site is provided as it is. If something on it is plainly wrong, tell us and we will fix it.

10. What we are responsible for

Creative gatherings involve materials and tools, and you take part using your own judgement. We will take reasonable care of you, and we expect you to take reasonable care of yourself and others.

If we let you down, what we owe you is limited to what you paid for that booking. We are not responsible for indirect losses, such as travel costs or lost earnings.

Nothing in these terms limits our responsibility for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud, or for anything else that cannot be limited under Indian law.

11. Changes to these terms

We may update these terms. The version on this page when you book is the one that applies to that booking, so the date at the top matters. If we make a significant change, we will say so on this page.

12. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of India. If something goes wrong, please write to us first, as nearly everything can be sorted out that way. Any dispute that cannot be settled between us falls to the courts of Mangaluru, Karnataka.

Refund & Cancellation Policy

At MakeWave, we strive to ensure a fair and transparent experience for all our attendees. Please review our refund and cancellation terms below:

What we collect

When you book

• Your first and last name
• Your email address
• Your WhatsApp number
• The first names you give us for the people you are booking for
• How you heard about us, if you tell us
• Your booking itself: which gathering, how many seats, the amount paid, your booking reference and whether you checked in at the door

We do not collect your postal address, and we never see your card, UPI or bank details. Those go straight to Cashfree, our payment provider.

When you just visit

• Your IP address and basic details about your browser and device, used to keep the site working and to block bots and spam
• If you tap “I’d come” on an idea, a random identifier stored in your own browser so the same person cannot vote twice. It is not linked to your name or email.

Why we use it

• To give you your seat: taking payment, sending your pass, checking you in at the door.
• To tell you what you need to know: reminders before a gathering, a change of venue or time, and answers when you write to us.
• To handle refunds and changes when you cannot make it.
• To keep the site working and honest: stopping bots, spam and people blocking seats they do not intend to use.
• To decide what to run next: looking at which gatherings fill up and which ideas people like. This is counted in aggregate.
• To meet our legal and tax obligations.

We do not sell your information, and we do not use it for advertising.

Who else sees it

We use a small number of companies to run MakeWave. They may only use your information to do their job for us.

• Cashfree Payments — takes your payment and handles refunds. They receive your name, email, phone and the amount.
• Resend — sends our emails. They receive your email address and the contents of the email.
• Neon — hosts our database, where your booking is stored.
• Hostinger — hosts the website and our email inboxes.
• Arcjet — checks requests to the site for bots and abuse, and sees your IP address.
• Google Maps — shows the venue map. If you interact with it, Google’s own privacy policy applies.

We may also share information where the law requires it, or where it is necessary to protect someone’s safety.

Where it is stored

Our database is hosted in Singapore, and our email provider sends from servers in Japan. Your information therefore leaves India and is processed abroad by the companies listed above, under contracts that require them to protect it.

How long we keep it

• Your booking and payment records are kept for as long as our tax and accounting obligations require.
• Passes and QR codes stop working once a gathering has passed.
• Sign-in codes expire after ten minutes.
• If you ask us to delete your information, we will, except for anything we are legally required to keep.

How we protect it

The site and our API run over encrypted connections. Our database is reachable only over an encrypted connection and only by our own systems. The admin tools are limited to a few named people, who sign in with a code sent to their email rather than a shared password. No system is perfect, but we treat your information as if it were our own.

Your rights

You can ask us to:

• tell you what information we hold about you,
• correct anything that is wrong,
• delete your information, where we are not required to keep it,
• stop sending you anything that is not about a booking you have made,
• nominate someone to act for you if you are unable to.

Write to help@makewave.in and we will respond as soon as we can. If you are not happy with how we handled it, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India.

Children

Our gatherings and this site are meant for adults, and we do not knowingly collect information about anyone under 18 except the first name a parent or guardian gives us when booking a seat for them. If you believe we hold more than that about a child, tell us and we will delete it.

Cookies and browser storage

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and there is nothing to consent to. The site does keep a few small things in your own browser, which never reach our servers as part of a profile:

• the details you have typed into the booking form, so you do not lose them if the page reloads — cleared when you close the tab,
• a note that you have already seen the opening animation,
• the random identifier behind the “I’d come” taps described above.

You can clear these at any time in your browser settings. The site still works without them.

Changes to this policy

If we change how we use your information, we will update this page and the date at the top. If the change is significant, we will tell the people it affects by email.