Festivals can be a tough slog – when the weekend is over, the only things that live on are your memories of incredible performances and being absolutely sloshed. The three days navigating the event quickly fade to black, and rightly so.
While you’re there, however, navigating the site can be a serious headache. It’s not unusual to completely lose your friends at festivals for hours on end, or miss your favourite bands by accident, or even stumble into the wrong tent on the way home.
Simply put, festivals can be a social and logistics nightmare, which is why the recently-launched dedicated iPhone app for Oxegen 2010 is a godsend for any music lovers this weekend.
Mimicking the nine-tiled set-up of the Facebook application, the geniuses at Dublin’s CKSK have created an accessible, time-saving app that comes fully prepared for the festivities ahead, even if you aren’t.
That’s a lot of toilets – thankfully
Clicking on the app’s ‘Live News’ function provides users with the latest news and alerts from the festival’s website, whilst a Twitter feed of all the artists playing the event is also included. A full travel section is also featured, demonstrating exact routes to and from the festival, and a handy live traffic feed from AA Roadwatch to help you beat the traffic.
Before you’ve even hopped in your transport though, we recommend perusing the app’s ‘Interactive Kit List’, a handy checklist for festival essentials. Drinkaware.ie have also provided their own ‘Festival Survival Guide’, which includes tips on pitching tents, staying safe, and how to avoid the mythical MUDPERSON, a creature coated entirely in mud and known to terrorise festival goers who utter strange, indecipherable verbal ramblings. Be on the look-out.
Once you’ve arrived at Oxegen, you can open up the ‘Map’ function to get your bearings. As pictured above, the maps point out the nearest toilets, bars, food and water stations, and you can GPS mark your personal belongings, such as your tent. No longer will you find yourself collapsing into a stranger’s tent when you have your phone guiding the way.
One of the most essential features of the festival app is the ‘Line-Up and Interactive Planner’, which helpfully shows the line-ups for each stage for every hour of the day. You can even click on the event and set it as a reminder on your phone.
Finally, the feature we’re most excited about for Oxegen 2010 is the augmented reality function (if you’re a newbie to AR you can read our piece on it). The augmented reality feature utilises your on-board iPhone camera to show you live points of interest through the screen as you walk around. If your Facebook friends have downloaded the app too, you can find their exact location through the app’s GPS.
Fun, comprehensive and completely free, the official Oxegen app will keep festivalgoers entertained and in the loop for the coming three days of music festival frivolity – now, if only we could say the same for our iPhone’s battery life.
The Oxegen 2010 app is available to download from the App Store free of charge.
Check out our feature on Ten Oxegen Recommendations
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