Mobile hotspot without cell service? I will be at a solar eclipse festival where there is no cell service (it's waaaaay out in the boonies). I would like to distribute a viewing guide (PDF) for attendees to view on their mobile devices.

What would be the best way to do this? Can it even be done? Can I create a mobile hotspot from my Android or Windows device even though there is no cell service? If so, can I create a simple page to allow them to download the document? How would I do that?
Yes, you can create mobile hotspot without cell service, at least in stock Android. The easiest way to mass share a file I think of is by hosting an FTP server. You can find apps for that in Play Store. I grabbed WiFi FTP Server from the first ones in Play Store, which worked well. Here's what you need to do:


Start mobile hotspot and keep the security to None so that others could connect to hotspot freely.
Launch that app, go to its Settings:


tick Anonymous access -- so that others can access the server freely
select Root folder and select a directory where your pdf file(s) would be kept. Ideally, you should create a dedicated directory (through a file manager app) for it so that others would automatically be able to view only that directory.
tick Read only -- you don't want others to modify contents in your storage

On the app's home page, select Start.

You would get something like this:

(Click image to enlarge)


Ask people to enter the URL in their browser. That's it.