Festival season is almost over but there's still time for one final hurrah with the Reading and Leeds Festivals this Bank Holiday weekend. Whether you're heading there or to any other festivals, our survival guide will keep both you and your tech in top form!
Nowadays, festivals are much more high-tech affairs than they used to be – and although the old tricks like tying a balloon to your tent do still work, your smartphone can be your perfect festival buddy!
Not only can it help you keep track of your mates, it can also keep you up to date on everything from band timings to the weather – not accounting for poor signal and the fact you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere with 10,000 people all trying to Instagram their selfies at the same time!
Festivals aren't exactly the most phone-friendly of environments, though – so make sure you're prepared with some general tips:
A full battery is a must, and even though most festivals may have some charging stations available, you may not want to rely on them.
With that in mind, you definitely want to consider taking advantage of any power-saving features available to you, as outlined in our guide here– such as turning down screen brightness, turning off unused connections like Bluetooth and making use of a low-power mode, if your phone has one.
It's also worth investing in a sturdy case – especially if you're prone to the odd bout of stage-diving.
Then there's every festival-goers nemesis, the great British weather. If you're lucky to have a water-resistant phone like a Samsung Galaxy S7 or one of the high-end Sony Xperia handsets, then your phone is probably safe. If not, there's a cheap and easy hack you can use: just pack a ziplock food bag to keep your phone safe and dry!
Our pick of the best apps for festivals
Reading and Leeds Festival 2016 official app
If you’re lucky enough to be heading to either site this year be sure to install the official Reading and Leeds app for your Android handset or iPhone!
The app is your complete guide to the festival including line-ups and running orders - don’t leave home without it!*
*Or your wellies.
Clashfinder General
Free web-based service
So you’ve booked your tickets, dusted off your tent, optimistically packed your sunblock… now it’s time to plan who you’re going to see!
For huge festivals like Reading and Leeds with multiple stages, having a festival plan is a must. After all, you don’t want to trek halfway across the site through the mud only to find you've missed your favourite band.
Clashfinder General is a nifty website that offers free, printable timetables for all the major UK festivals – giving you a clear, no-frills rundown of who’s playing and when. Now the only hard bit is narrowing down the bands you want to see!
Victorinox Festival Ready
Free for iOS
If you like the idea of an app that pretty much covers all your needs, this could be the one. Fittingly, this all-in-one app is from Victorinox – the makers of Swiss Army Knife – and while broadly aimed at campers, it's full of features for any festival-goer, including:
- Packing checklists
- Camping tips
- Weather updates
- Emergency medical guide
- Torch
- Sound flare
- Geotagging feature to help you find your friends or tent – and it’s free!
With this one app you should be fully prepared for your trip – and also be able to get your friends to come and rescue you if you've been AWOL on the waltzers for six hours.
Shazam
Free for iOS, Android, Blackberry and Windows Phone
Of course, festivals are ultimately about one thing – the music – and this app could help you discover your favourite new band – particularly helpful when things start to get blurry!
Find out the name of the song and artist playing by just tapping on the app. It’ll scan a huge database – sending you the track info if it can find it. Note:Shazam doesn’t always take kindly to really loud volumes, and it's unlikely to identify any unreleased stuff that's getting its first festival airing.
Let’s face it: no festival experience is complete without the obligatory pictures of you - probably covered in mud and moshing with some Norwegian death metal fans who are now your new best mates.
Keep your friends back home up to date with this famous app, which lets you upload all your festival highlight images. The app also comes with some great effects and filters to make your friends just that little bit more envious.
Vimeo
Free for iOS, Android and Windows Phone
Like Instagram but for videos, Vimeo simply offers a great way to upload and share all your video memories – and relive them once you’re back home. Essential once the crash back to reality has well and truly kicked in!
Virtual Lighter
No lighter? No problem! If you want to show your appreciation for the band on stage, Virtual Lighter has your back.
It's the perfect app for when the sun has set and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are playing "Under The Bridge"– but not so useful if someone needs an actual source of ignition.
TripList
Free for iOS
One of the biggest dilemmas for a festival-goer is what to pack: you don’t want to take everything including the kitchen sink (and waste valuable beer room), but you don’t want to get caught short either.
A packing list may not seem very rock and roll – but neither's running out of toilet paper. Choose Triplist for a simple way to keep track of all your camping essentials.
BlaBlaCar
Getting stuck at a train or coach station while hauling pots and pans (and almost everything else you own) on your back certainly isn’t the best way to begin your festival experience. Surely there's a better way to travel?
Well, BlaBlaCar is a car-sharing app that could help you cut the cost – and stress – of travelling down to the festival site. You can even choose your fellow gig-goers based on their musical taste – so there won’t be any arguments about the choice of tunes on the way there!
Weather Underground
When it comes to the weather, British festivals are notoriously unpredictable – switching from glorious sunshine to rain-lashed mudbath almost in an instant.
Traditional forecasts are all well and good, but Weather Underground goes much further – using data from over 180,000 personal weather stations to give you the most localised weather forecast you could hope for!
Find My iPhone and Android Device Manager
Free
One thing you don't want to do is lose your phone – and if you do lose it, you're then faced with the prospect of scarabbling around in a muddy field in the pitch dark in a desperate attempt to locate it.
We hope you never have to do this, but to be on the safe side make sure you've got either Find My iPhone or Android Device Manager switched on to give yourself a fighting chance of finding it should your phone go walkies.
Conveniently, you won't need to download anything: just activate them on your device, and you're set. Better still, our own Agent Cruickshank has put together a helpful guide that shows you exactly how, for both iOS and Android devices – check it out here, and you'll be (at least somewhat) protected if the worst should happen!
So, there you have it: everything you need to survive the festival season this summer. You can let us know your own festival survival tips in the comments section below. Have a good one!