I can't get no.....phone reception

Glastonbury always conjures up images of mud that comes up to the hips, Kate Moss sporting the latest Hunter wellies, and bottles of urine being hurled from one side of the Pyramid stage to the other.

For the Glastonbury just gone, you can add advanced technology to that list.

For anyone that’s ever been to any sort of music festival, I’m sure you’ll all have experienced the joys of dodgy phone signals.

Which meant that when your party decided to split up because some people wanted to see Kings of Leon, and some disillusioned folk wanted to see Radiohead, you probably didn’t see each other again until the end of the festival – thanks to the poor connectivity in such a crowded space.

EE brought an ‘eco-tractor’ to Glastonbury 2013 which gave out a 4G wireless signal to anyone within a 10m radius.  Now that probably meant that separate members of the same party weren’t both enjoying the fast connectivity at the same time, but with advanced GPS tracking devices and also stronger 3G network capacity for the whole of the festival area, it gave people more of a chance to stay connected with each other.

Although if they’re off listening to Radiohead it’s probably best if you sever ties with them altogether (I know they didn’t play at Glastonbury this year, but for future reference.….).

It also means that in this multi device world, where your smartphone becomes your diary, your personal assistant, and your everything in between, you can take more advantage of things like the Glastonbury mobile app which allows you to schedule your day according to performance times and access continually updated content.

People at home not taking part in the international festival of mud could also keep up to date via a wide range of coverage, social media feeds and recorded playback.  At the time of writing the Rolling Stones’ set was viewed on BBC’s iPlayer over 700,000 times.

Technology for the modern festival go-er

There are also a few other tech- savvy items on the market for festival use – the ‘solar bag’ and the ‘recording glasses’ are just a couple of examples.

The solar bag, pricey as it is (around £150), comes with a solar panel which can be used to charge your smartphone or tablet.  This does of course rely on the splendid British weather, but they say on a sunny day you can expect to charge most devices in around 3 hours.  You can of course also use it for what it looks like – a backpack.

Another interesting object is a pair of glasses which can also be used to record video.  They look more like traditional sunglasses than the rather cyborg-esque Google Glass (coming out later this year), and they allow you to record around about 8 GB of video, and download to your computer later on.

And because you don’t have to constantly hold up your smartphone or tablet to record what’s going on, you can use both arms to truly let yourself go to the beat (although if you went to see Radiohead, you might need both hands to help cover your ears).

All goes to show how technology is adapting to our user habits today, and the need to always remain connected to our devices remains the constant driver in these innovations.

P.s I apologise to any Radiohead fans who have been offended by my comments – I’m only kidding……sort of.