This (and Next) Summer’s Standout Festival Apps
by Carolyn Heneghan
Want to enrich your music festival experience? These days, you can have apps for just about everything you can think of, and navigating music festivals is yet another way apps are being put to good use. Many festivals are turning to apps to keep their attendees in the loop about any and all aspects of the event, but some are better than others. Here are a few different apps that you should consider downloading the next time this music festival comes around.
Ultra Music Festival
The app for 2014 had several new features in addition to the photo filters, Facebook and Twitter integration, artist lineup and a fan wall to communicate with other fans, which the app already had. Friend Finder updates your location every time you open the app and can be seen by everyone you share your location with. UMF TV allows you to watch exclusive videos of the festival content before the fest, and during the festival, this feature includes access to highlights and live streams. The Schedule Maker helps you plan out your Ultra experience in advance and shares your picks with friends. Discover helps you find out which artists people are most excited to see, ensuring you’ll learn more about artists you may have never heard of. Its 2015 app promises to also include user schedule and set times, in addition to plenty of other handy new features.
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival
Also known as Jazz Fest, this festival’s app includes a variety of features to help you navigate this popular New Orleans event. Not only will you have access to the music lineup, which lets you see every artist and where they are playing, filtered by day and/or stage, but you can also customize a schedule for each day and easily add and remove artists as the day goes on. You can also go to Artist Info to read bios, watch videos, visit official websites or go to iTunes to download music from any artist performing at the festival.
In addition to music info and the schedule, you’ll also gain access to the food lineup, which contains a massive list of every food item available at Jazz Fest and which area you can find it in. You can even schedule what foods you want to eat at specific times. There’s a handy zoomable and scrollable map of the entire festival grounds where you can click on a stage to see its lineup for that day. You can also use social integration that allows you to take pictures, caption them automatically with the artist and stage info and send them to Facebook, Twitter or both at the same time.
Coachella
Perhaps one of the most high-tech of the festival apps, Coachella’s app allows you to fill in your social media and notification preferences, which include emergencies, ticket info and so on, and then uses that information to activate your wristband directly from your phone. It provides a user-friendly interface for seeing the artist lineup and schedule in several different formats: by grid, timeline or list, by day or by stage. It includes weather updates on the front page and other Fun & Essentials features, such as where to find charging stations, dodgeball and the fest’s infamous Ferris wheel. The My Coachella account you create will also enable you to update your status, post photos of performances and other events and tag your friends as well. Plus you have access to Eat & Drink which helps you navigate all of the vendors, attractions, retailers and other points of interest.
Austin City Limits
This year’s version with all of its updates hasn’t been released yet since the festival isn’t for another few months, but last year’s app should be an indication of what’s to come. You can browse the entire list of set times to know when and where all of the bands you want to see are performing, and you can add your top bands to a personalized My Favorites list that you can share with friends. Learn more about those artists and even discover new bands by going through descriptions and music videos, and you can even interact with the band and fellow fans without ever leaving the app. The Austin Eats & Art Market section provides both menus and descriptions of different restaurants and vendors throughout the grounds. Push notifications and alerts keep you updated on all of the latest happenings of the festival in addition to a few surprises along the way.
You’ll find many more music festival apps where that came from, though note that they will range in quality, especially when it comes to being slow and buggy. Try these out for a good taste of what app developers have made possible for boosting your fest experience and helping you enjoy every aspect of the event possible.
