It’s been a few years since I attended a destination music festival, but going to the second US festival in 1983 was one of the highlights of my college years. I remember it was very hot, we saw an incredible array of stellar performances, toured some exhibits with cutting edge personal computers and other technology and had a simply wonderful time. Hard to believe, but back then, we bought our tickets at a ticket broker’s office, we carried wallets and cameras and it was only days later we could show people our photos once we’d had the film developed.
Now, of course, the Modern Fan enjoys (if they want to) a connected experience they can share with their friends in their social networks. You can purchase your tickets online. (Take care, lots of people get scammed in dodgy online ticket schemes. Stick to trusted ticket vendors and online shops). You can download apps created just for the event to help you schedule what acts you’ll see, where you’ll buy food, even to arrange meet-ups with friends or fellow fans. I tried out a specialty app like that at the most recent Presidential Inauguration. It was a great way to find good routes for taking the Washington DC Metro, planning our viewing spot for the Inauguration itself and later, making our way to our viewing spot for the parade. Apps can be tricky though; the one for the Inauguration kept texting alerts about closed streets and missing children, running my phone’s battery down until I reconfigured the settings. Make sure you configure the alert and update settings to avoid that problem.
Norton just completed a nifty global online survey of people who go to music and other big festivals to understand their use of mobile tech and what pitfalls (if any) they have experienced. Wow, the way things have changed since the 1980’s! Everyone is coming to the festival with their smartphone (over 90%) and they will use it as a camera to record their experiences. One half of them will then upload and post to social networks to share their event with others. (Or maybe bragging rights?) I am intrigued by the 20% who will use their smartphone or tablet to as an electronic access ticket and 10% who will make festival purchases with the phone or tablet!
The value of that phone in making your festival experience great can’t be exaggerated. So you’ve got to consider the very real possibility something might happen to separate you and your very valuable device. 35% of festival visitors will lose their device, usually on public transportation. So I’d make sure I’ve got a good handle on my device’s whereabouts at all times and I’d install security software in advance. 
That way if my smartphone or tablet goes missing, I can remotely locate, lock and wipe it, making sure whoever finds the device doesn’t go shopping with my data or start contacting my friends. And for goodness sakes, put a password on your phone. We know from previous Norton studies that the finder of a lost phone will rifle through all the personal files and apps 100% of the time!
So this summer, wherever your festival travels may take you, remember the sunscreen, drink lots of water and secure your smartphone and tablet from loss or malware before you ever leave your home.