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HelpFuture of Festivals: How Technologies Can Change Our Lives
Image Source: 365.tomorrowland.com
Anyone who has visited an open-air festival knows that the scene unquestionably has room for improvement and innovation. To deliver the best possible experience to festival goers, event producers need to solve a lot of problems, such as overcrowding, poor Wi-Fi connectivity, handling money and tickets, and safety. Like in many other scenes, the technology is the only answer here.
The recent Tomorrowland festival has been huge. Two weekends of music from the best DJs in the world attracted thousands of attendees. To manage such a large crowd, the management of the event knew they needed some serious technology.
Let’s explore festival planning and the type of RFID technology and others currently changing the way open air festivals work.
WEARABLE TECH WRISTBANDS
A real twenty-first-century festival does not sell print tickets. At Tomorrowland, for example, they come in the form high-tech wristbands that have a number of awesome capabilities.
• FACEBOOK REQUEST. Each band was linked to the user’s Facebook account. Storing the information about the social media allowed to deliver impressive function: a Facebook friend request. If two users simultaneously pressed the heart button on the wrist, they received a request from each other. While this function does not automatically add people using Facebook, it’s still very impressive and innovative.
The Facebook request function was made possible by the ability of the bands to emit UHF radio frequencies. The only thing a brand wearer had to do to activate them was pressing on a heart-shaped button.
• CASHLESS HANDLING OF PURCHASES. The bands also worked to facilitate cashless payments for any merchandise sold during the festival because the funds could be uploaded directly to them. With the permission of the band owner, the device was linked to their bank account. As the result, the attendees did not have to worry about carrying their cash or credit cards around and focus on enjoying the music.
“Cashless technology played an important role in my festival experience,” says David Whitaker, an event manager from bestessaytips.com. “I did not have to wait in line plus no worries about losing the wallet.”
• LED LIGHTS. This function was made specifically to help people enjoy the festival. Each band was equipped with a super responsive LED light. Even though the users could not activate it by themselves, it was up to the event producers to make sure that they produced impressive light shows during the performance of the DJs. They decided to activate the lights remotely and did a great job.
• REAL DATA ANALYTICS. SXSW 2014 festival also used wristbands to throw a killer party. However, the event producers turned to science to achieve this goal, and made one of the coolest experiments ever done in a music festival. They used an art and technology platform called Lightwave to collect real-time data analytics from wristbands, including motion, reactions, and temperature.
As the result, they could identify the most active dancers and times when the reactions of the attendees reached the highest levels. To reward them, special confetti and drink prizes were provided. The experiment was a real success, as all attendees enjoyed being rewarded for their dances. Indeed, how great would it be if dancing at your favorite artist set could win you some prizes?
VIRTUAL REALITY
Thanks to the VR technology, those who cannot visit Tomorrowland could still experience it. All they have to do is visit discover.tomorrowworld.com and select the area they wanted to explore. For example, they could see the campground, stages, performances, and art exhibits. As the result, everyone could connect with the festival on a personal level than ever before.
Image Source: Discover Tomorrowworld
VR technology gets more and more popular. The American music and arts festival Coachella, for example, took it one step further and developed a VR app for Android and iOS. Every person who bought a ticket to the festival received a special VR headset to be able to use it. The headset created a truly immersive experience and allowed the festival to live beyond the date of the launch.
LYRICS-DISPLAYING TOOL
The Brahma Valley festival organized by the beer brand Brahma produced another cool experiment that showed the potential of technology in improving the experience of the audience. Every attendee could buy a Copokê, a beer cup that also… displayed lyrics of the songs that were played! Imagine the situation: you are at a festival and everyone around you is singing a song but you don’t know the lyrics. As the result, you feel rejected.
Image Source: bolha.com.br
Copokê solved this problem. The creators of this amazing tool equipped it with the ability to display timings of performances so you can take a break and get another beer and, of course, show the lyrics of the songs so you can sing along. Thus, with the help of the cups, every attendee was able to fully involve themselves – making for a lively festival experience.
FACIAL RECOGNITION
This is a more controversial form of technology that does not enjoy a lot of interest from festival goers. However, it still should be mentioned here because we may begin to see more of it in the nearest future.
The first time the facial recognition technology was used at Download festival just two years ago. Then, the police scanned the faces of about 90,000 attendees upon entry to determine that they don’t match the faces in a database of criminals. Although it seems that the police meant to increase the security of the event, the response to the scanning was mostly negative. The vast majority of the event attendees said they felt surveyed by the government.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Festivals continue to use more impressive technology to improve the experience of the audience. Already, the constant adoption of new tools, event apps, and innovations became a norm in this industry, and it has been a pleasant experience so far. What will they think of next?
Guest Author Bio: Tom Jager is a professional blogger. He works at Proessaywriting. He has a degree in Law and English literature. Tom has written numerous articles/online journals. You can reach him on G+ or Facebook.
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