I’ve been attending Roskilde Festival. Four days of festival and more than 70,000 festival guests leaves the opportunity to do something social – also when it comes to digital media.
When on a festival you actually don’t have much time to be online, but with a smartphone and a few clever apps, digital media can actually help improve the festival experience. For instance I constantly used the Unoffical Festival Guide to keep track of concerts and the schedule instead of carrying around a paper schedule in my pocket. I already had my phone with me, so why not just use a digital version.
One of the most i interesting networks to pay attention to is the location-based service Foursquare, which I think Roskilde Festival made clever use of even though they didn’t have any official badges or business deals. The festival had its own Foursquare profile and had added tips for the different stages. So when I checked in somewhere, a message with some facts of the place I had checked in at popped up on my screen.
Also, right before the closing concert with a packed Orange Stage waiting for Prince, the Roskilde Festival itself checked in at Orange Stage with the message: Thank you for this year’s festival – see you in 2011. It was an easy and effective way for the festival to reach out to its audience and deliver a personal message.
So besides the general advantages of using Foursquare, which allowed me to see what concerts that were more popular in real time, the festival’s use of Foursquare was what surprised me the most.
