We know the feeling: you’re so amped for Rocking The Daisies that you forget to pack the most important things, like sunscreen, underwear or that preppy new denim shirt you bought. But while you probably also forgot to pack essential gadgets, what about those important apps?
Believe it or not (perhaps you’re a purist), but surviving the modern music festival — like Rocking The Daisies — takes more than sheer adrenaline and sunburn. You may just need an app or two to keep up to speed with the festival itself.
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So, with that in mind, here is Memeburn’s essential app kit for the lucky readers heading off to Rocking The Daisies this weekend.
MySOS
Arguably an essential app regardless of your weekend hit list, MySOS is a locally-developed app that aims to get you out of tight situations.
The app houses important information, including personal blood type, allergens and important contact info, and will reach out to those contacts if need be. Whether you’re feeling threatened by people around you, or the tigers lurking in the Darling farmlands, sending an alert is as simple as opening the app. It then notifies the relevant party that you’re in need of assistance if you don’t cancel the request.
It could work for flat tyres, when you run out of fuel or even simply as a last resort if your friends forget you at Daisies.
Download for Android and iOS. Visit the website here.
Snapseed
No festival is complete without snaps, and Snapseed will help to edit that Western Cape sunburn from your cheeks. Fairly lightweight with an easy-to-learn interface, Snapseed will let you tweak white balance, and apply filters for use later on other social media sites. It’s a nifty tool that’s good as a general must-have app for all occasions.
Honourable mentions: Prisma and Pixlr.
While not essential, apps like Snapchat and Instagram will serve you well at Rocking The Daisies
Your banking app
The reasons for this inclusion is pretty obvious.
All the major banks in South Africa have a dedicated app from which you can transfer cash, check balances or purchase airtime. It’s a one-stop-shop for those who don’t like carrying cash. Wondering if you’ve hit your credit card limit already? Open the app and have a look. You can also cancel your card on the fly in case it leaves you behind.
Honourable mentions: SnapScan.
Download for ABSA (Android or iOS), Capitec (Android or iOS), FNB (Android or iOS), Nedbank (Android or iOS) or Standard Bank (Android or iOS).
FireChat
If you do run out of money and airtime, you can still talk to your friends through the wonders of mesh networking app Firechat.
Used during the Arab Spring of 2013 and the Occupy Wall Street movement before it, FireChat allowed protestors to communicate with one another even if networks are jammed.
It uses Bluetooth and WiFi to beam messages from device to device. To allow FireChat’s own explanation:
If there are more than two devices, they will form a network and messages will bounce from one device to the next, thus extending the range of the network. The more people use FireChat, the better the network gets for everybody. This is why FireChat works really well for very large groups of people.
As a result, it’s great for festivals, especially thanks to the population density.
Shazam
Like that song but have no idea what its name is?
Well, Shazam tries to fill that void using machine learning to guess the song you’re currently listening to. It uses your phones’ mic and will require an internet connection to connect to its servers. But still, it’s worth keeping in your arsenal if you have no idea who Knife Party or Mac Miller is.
Prey
While festivals are supposed to be filled with happy people, it’s also a prime location for stolen or lost goods. Luckily, thanks to the wonders of GPS, the internet and better cameras, you can now track your phone even if its swiped.
Third party apps like Prey and Cerberus can do just that (you’ll have to sign up for both). If you don’t want to go that route, Google’s Android Device Manager does the exact same on its eponymous OS, while Apple iOS device users can log into iCloud if their device goes walkabout.
Users of the above can take pictures of the thief, receive location prompts and even alert the police if they happen to connect to the internet.
Honourable mentions: Apple iCloud, Google Device Manager and Cerberus for Android
Download Prey for Android and iOS.
AlcoDroid
Not totally sure how far off the legal limit you are the morning after the night before? AlcoDroid will help you plot your alcoholic journey, and subsequently calculate when your body should be relatively alcohol free. Granted, it’s not an exact science, and we do ask that you please don’t drink and drive (and please take a breathalyser test beforehand if driving is unavoidable), but it’s a good gauge nonetheless.
Honourable mention: R-U-Buzzed?
Download for Android.
Rocking The Daisies app
The most obvious one of all, Rocking The Daisies actually has a highly intuitive app this year. Providing festival goers with times, set information and even artist backgrounds, the app is something you should definitely have on your phone to save time, and plan your weekend.
It’s basically a must have for the festival map too.
Wunderground
An app that I swear by, Wunderground’s game is hyper-local weather monitoring and forecasting. It’s incredibly accurate, using a number of personal weather stations, crowdsourced information and national weather forecasts to provide users with a solid weather outlook.
Wunderground also pops through alerts of estimated hours of rain, the day’s general temperature and wind trends, and the night time outlook.
St Johns Ambulance First Aid app
This one is pretty obvious. If you’re in a real tight situation — travelling to, from or at Daisies — it’s always great to have simple first aid information close at hand.
The St John’s Ambulance app lists all the essential steps to treat simple concerns from burns and abrasions, to allergic reactions and heat exhaustion. And if need be, more serious ailments.
It’s a great app to have at festivals, and one you might miss if you don’t happen to have it.
Not so essential, but great to have
Snapchat — I think we all know why. You can’t be Rocking The Daisies without snapping yourself doing it.
Instagram — those Darling mountains aren’t going to take selfies of themselves. Surprisingly, Instagram is a great tool to use to keep track of friends’ whereabouts too, using the oft-forgotten location map.
Opera Max — if you’re worried about using too much data at Daisies, Opera Max will help to compress a vast majority of it, effectively giving you more MB. You can choose
Google Allo — more effective than WhatsApp for planning your day before, weekend during, or day after Daisies. On its facade, it’s a chat app. But lurking just a little deeper is a rather powerful group organisation tool, perfect for the day before, weekend during, or night after Daisies.
App In The Air — if you’re flying in to Cape Town this weekend, a great tool to keep track of your flights, check-in times and other information is App In The Air. It also has a stellar packing list feature, which will help immensely when packing for, and packing up for Daisies.
Have we missed any essential apps? Let us know in the comments section below, or tweet us your suggestions @memeburn. Need a few games as well? Then check our Gearburn’s weekly mobile game round-up.
