What advice would you give for first timers?

[stuartbert two hats]

I've started making a point of leaving my phone in my coat in cloakrooms at gigs.  The security is a worry, but I feel so much more free now.

[somecoolusername]

My advice would be don't take your smartphone with its crap battery life. You'll waste time charging it, worrying about it getting lost/stolen, etc... I leave my iphone at home and take an old phone that's only good for texts and calls. Can still communicate with everyone I need to and the battery lasts all weekend 

[Spindles]

I always used to take an old nokia, but to be honest with a charging brick these days you can easily have enough juice to run a smartphone all week.  Last year I took my smartphone, hardly had a need to use it, but it saved my arse being able to get on line for coach ticket emails when I forgot to pick the tickets up when I left the house.  The camp solo folks ran a whatsapp group, which worked really well for them meeting up and such through the week.

[Chris Lfc]

When i go to festivals i normally take my own portable chargers, they're cheap and just saves time. Believe it or not an iphone can last days if you keep the screen on a really low brightness and keep it airplane mode. I just take it off airplane mode when i really need to call or text which is hardly ever! But my phone is also a brick (iphone 6+) so ill always notice it if it sneaks from my pockets or whatever.

Edited February 10, 2016 by Chris Lfc

[SwedgeAntilles]

I took my normal phone, used it as a camera, way of keeping in touch with the rest of the group when we split up and to get alerts from here on secret gigs

Bought a charging brick off of Amazon for 20 quid and barely burned through half the battery. 

I'd be hesitant to suggest to new comers not to bring or carry a phone as given the scale of the site you want to be able to keep in contact with your mates if you get unintentionally separated.

[PiratePete]

I went for one of these plus a spare battery and a throwaway pay as you go sim card last year and left my 'proper' phone in the car http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nokia-105-Sim-Free-Smartphone-Blue/dp/B00IPHDPPC/ref=sr_1_4?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1455111975&sr=1-4&keywords=nokia+105

Money well spent, saves you worrying about losing something more expensive and the battery life is pretty good. Learning how to use predictive text again was a right ballache mind...

 

 

[grumpyhack]

One of the joys of being at a festival is that you can divorce yourself from the outside world.  So why not switch your phone off.  Maybe just put it on a couple of times a day to check all is OK at home or to fix a meet up with mates.  That way pretty well any battery will last the fest.

[stixmcvix]

14 minutes ago, grumpyhack said:

One of the joys of being at a festival is that you can divorce yourself from the outside world.  So why not switch your phone off.  Maybe just put it on a couple of times a day to check all is OK at home or to fix a meet up with mates.  That way pretty well any battery will last the fest.

^^^^^^ What he said.

Massive pet-hate (especially at gigs) is not being able to see the act on the stage for all of the bloody phones in the air. Grrrrr. And as for the constant scourge of narcissistic selfies, these people are crying out to be photobombed by my naked bottom.

[defrio29]

15 minutes ago, grumpyhack said:

One of the joys of being at a festival is that you can divorce yourself from the outside world.  So why not switch your phone off.  Maybe just put it on a couple of times a day to check all is OK at home or to fix a meet up with mates.  That way pretty well any battery will last the fest.

but what about those twitter-push notification of surprise sets 

what if i miss the purple one's surprise set because of this advice...

 

[stixmcvix]

Just now, defrio29 said:

but what about those twitter-push notification of surprise sets 

what if i miss the purple one's surprise set because of this advice...

 

A ruddy good point. But word soon spreads. I remember 2011's Radiohead set on The Park set was the worst-kept secret of Saturday.

[PiratePete]

18 minutes ago, grumpyhack said:

One of the joys of being at a festival is that you can divorce yourself from the outside world.  So why not switch your phone off.  Maybe just put it on a couple of times a day to check all is OK at home or to fix a meet up with mates.  That way pretty well any battery will last the fest.

Kind of agree with this, but for folk that go off on a wander on their own for hours at a time, you need a phone for when you want to meet up with your mates later on in the day/night. 

[defrio29]

1 minute ago, stixmcvix said:

A ruddy good point. But word soon spreads. I remember 2011's Radiohead set on The Park set was the worst-kept secret of Saturday.

pretty sure that set was on a friday, so yeah, by saturday the words should've spread already 

[Chris Lfc]

I only use my phone for pictures, it's nice to share the moment specially with the friend I'm going with i only get to see her once a year since she's dutch!

[Untz]

I spent more time playing suduko on my cheapo phone than I did contacting people last year. Might just take a watch and leave my normal phone in the lock ups.

[JoeyMester]

The Secret Glasto Twitter account has proved very handy the past few years (also useful when a band pulls out at the last minute too so you don't walk over to see them and they're not there!).

[Tranquility of Solitude]

24 minutes ago, grumpyhack said:

One of the joys of being at a festival is that you can divorce yourself from the outside world.  So why not switch your phone off.  Maybe just put it on a couple of times a day to check all is OK at home or to fix a meet up with mates.  That way pretty well any battery will last the fest.

See both sides of this particular argument, but my views are probably best expressed by my user name.

[somecoolusername]

44 minutes ago, SwedgeAntilles said:

I took my normal phone, used it as a camera, way of keeping in touch with the rest of the group when we split up and to get alerts from here on secret gigs

Bought a charging brick off of Amazon for 20 quid and barely burned through half the battery. 

I'd be hesitant to suggest to new comers not to bring or carry a phone as given the scale of the site you want to be able to keep in contact with your mates if you get unintentionally separated.

I don't think anyone's saying don't take a phone. For me personally, taking an old phone I can text and call on just saves me the worry of having another thing to lose. 

 

But portable chargers are a good idea if you are taking a smartphone. I'll never forget walking to the Pyramid past the EE charging tent in 2013. The Rolling Stones were about to play a few yards away and the tent was full of people charging their phones. It was a sad sight. 

[stuartbert two hats]

Just now, JoeyMester said:

The Secret Glasto Twitter account has proved very handy the past few years (also useful when a band pulls out at the last minute too so you don't walk over to see them and they're not there!).

Did you get the Texas tweet last year?  That saved a lot of people's time.

[shuttlep]

On 2/4/2016 at 9:08 PM, stuartbert two hats said:

No, DO look. Stare the long drop pit in the eye until it no longer has any power over you.  

Then, you shall shit in peace.

i was once at a long drop, and i could see something being lowered down into the depths. i took a better look only to see some young girl (18 ish) being lowered down by her friends by her ankles i presume. trying to reach her purse which was sat n top of the pile of filth.

[stixmcvix]

11 minutes ago, defrio29 said:

pretty sure that set was on a friday, so yeah, by saturday the words should've spread already 

Christ, just goes to show how sober I was that weekend! And Beyonce headlined on the Thursday night, right?

[Gnomicide]

24 minutes ago, shuttlep said:

i was once at a long drop, and i could see something being lowered down into the depths. i took a better look only to see some young girl (18 ish) being lowered down by her friends by her ankles i presume. trying to reach her purse which was sat n top of the pile of filth.

 

[PiratePete]

41 minutes ago, shuttlep said:

i was once at a long drop, and i could see something being lowered down into the depths. i took a better look only to see some young girl (18 ish) being lowered down by her friends by her ankles i presume. trying to reach her purse which was sat n top of the pile of filth.

http://www.thejournal.co.uk/news/north-east-news/charlotte-taylor-gets-stuck-toilet-4472827

 

[balti-pie]

Yeah, my advice would be to pop your phone into a bag, along with a clean set of clothes and all your keys etc, into a lockup for the duration of the festival - if you get split up from your mates, then go discover something on your own.

Being in big groups at festivals is a bloody nightmare cos someone always needs a wee, wants some food, needs to finish that text message, is moaning at a band, etc etc etc . . . I don't want to spend any time at all staring at a little screen in my hand. I do enough of that the rest of the year. I wanna do outdoorsy things, drink beer, lie on the grass, stare at people wearing stupid stuff, maybe even look at their bottoms. Cobblers to phones. 

[somecoolusername]

There is nothing I own that I value enough to fish out of the long drops were I to drop it down there 

[Brave Sir Robin]

This is a great thread, with many good tips and, of course, lists. The lists reminded me of this timeless advice: