Summer has arrived and for many of us that means: festival time! Every week, there are dozens of festivals to attend to. With these apps and gadgets the party gets even better.
1) Car sharing new style: Festival entry tickets are not cheap, so a great way to save some money is car sharing. With BlaBla (available in several European countries) you can offer a passenger seat, or search for someone who is looking to share a ride. The great thing about BlaBla is you can search for someone based on preferences such as music.
2) Need an extra ticket? Tickets sold out? Check Ticketswap (available for Belgium, Germany, France and The Netherlands) for second hand e-tickets. It’s safe. And it’s honest, because tickets can be sold at a maximum fee of 120% of the original ticket price.
3) Mobile power RedBull and coffee can keep you going for hours, but what about your smartphone? Most batteries are dead within a day and especially when festivals are spread across several days this can be a problem. Standing in line for hours to charge your phone? It’s not our favorite thing either. We prefer to use a powerbank or mobile emergency charger. Powerbanks are available from lipstick size versions to powerful editions that charge an iPhone at least 3 times. Carry one in your bag or pocket and your battery will make it easy through the festival!
4) Discover new artists ‘Wow, what an incredible voice! Don’t you just love this singer-songwriter?’ ‘Yes, she rocks… What’s her name again?’ Festivals are great to discover new talent. With popular apps such as SoundHound and Shazam (both apps recognize songs and display artist information) you never have to worry about missing out on your favorite artists. Both apps are available for Android and iOS. From our experience, SoundHound is a bit faster, but Shazam does offer a nice feature where you can find the next concert of your favorite artist.
5) The perfect festival selfie Of course we all like to create some (digital) memories of those wonderful moments at the festival. But how do you fit your entire group of friends into such a small screen? With a selfie stick and a Bluetooth remote that becomes a piece of cake! Both the selfie stick (an extendable monopod for smartphones and cameras) and the remote are compatible with many smartphones and cameras.
6) Sunshine after the rain It’s summer, but weather is always unpredictable. Yahoo Weather or another weather app is a must have during festivals. We are a big fan of Yahoo Weather because of the Flickr integration.
7) Unbreakable Dancing and jumping around is almost required when you are at a festival. Chances are pretty big though that your smartphone won’t make it through the festival without a scratch. ToughGlass, that even survived a military drill, can stand a good deal of shocks and is available for different iPhone and Samsung models.
8) Where are you? I am waving NOW! After a quick toilet stop you suddenly cannot find your friends. Trying to call and understand where they are is not always working out at festivals. Luckily there are some apps that might help you out. We are curious about the SocialRadar app (not yet available in The Netherlands). Apps such as Find my Friends or GroupMe can be very useful to locate your festival buddies as well.
Do you use any gadgets or apps during a festival? Let us know which one in the comments below this post!
