Four Simple Tips to Make Your Next Festival Great

Music festivals are amazing. I absolutely love live music, a day in the sun, some drinks and time with mates. The vibe at a music festival cannot be matched. So, how do you ensure you have a frustration free day? We have four simple tips that will really help you.

Protect your phone!

Your phone is your lifeline at a festival, lose your friends and that thing becomes the only connection to them you have left. Plus, you need it to take quick snaps, use social media etc. Protect it from the elements! There is a good chance you will get wet at a festival (rain, hoses, spilled drink etc).

If you own a Galaxy S5 or one of the new Sony phones then you’ve likely got a water resistant phone already. If not:

50c protection: A GLAD bag, these things will zip lock and protect the phone

$50 protection: waterproof phone cases are available for most makes and models, get one.

Capture the moment!

The camera on your phone is good but to really capture the moments I recently used a GoPro Hero and have also used a Toshiba Camileo Sports camera. Both will film ultra wide angle video as well as come in waterproof casing and will withstand a drop, a punch, a roll on the floor, whatever. I paired the GoPro will my phone and was able to transfer content wirelessly as well as use it as a viewfinder. I also recommend a pole for these action cameras. It allows you to capture the view above heads and get some much better footage. My video below will demonstrate.

Last longer!

These music festivals are long days/nights. You need your phone to last. I have three suggestions to do that:

Free: Change the settings on your phone to extend battery life. Turn off as many push services as you can. Turn off bluetooth and wifi. Turn off GPS. Turn the brightness down. Heck, even turn off data. Calls are the most important at a festival.

$40: Buy a good ol’ Nokia handheld, the old school Nokia’s are still for sale and they’re cheap and functional. Perfect for being contactable for the whole day easily.

$70: Buy a battery charger for your smartphone. They’ll easily give you a whole extra charge and are small enough to carry in your pocket. Some are built into phone cases and can be quite sleek.

App up!

Our smartphones are brilliant, a few favourite apps for festivals:

The festival app: every music festival releases their app prior to the event. It allows you to schedule your favourite acts and get reminders. Much better than a folded flyer.

Instagram: Not just for the filters. I love Instagram because I can share an image or video once and have it go to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and more in one click. Data is scarce and slow at a festival so uploading to the internet once is great!

Glympse: This app is very handy for meeting with your friends. That call “I wonder where Geoff is, I’ll call him and see how he is travelling”. Forget that. You open the app and share your location for a period of time with your friends, they can then open the app on their phone and pinpoint you whenever they like, easy.

Besides all of this, have a great time, stay safe and look after your friends.