Appiphilia: Top 9 iPhone apps for Coachella music festival
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
Last year’s Coachella crowd heats up as Emily Haines and her band Metric perform at the festival in Indio, Calif. Credit: Jay Clendenin / Los Angeles Times
Three days, thousands of concertgoers, so much sun and more than 120 acts. So much to soak up, so little time! Appiphiliacs know that your iPhone can offer a little high-tech help in finding your way at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Here’s a quick look at nine iPhone apps that caught our fancy.
What it is: This is the festival bible, so to speak. It has a rundown of who’s playing where and how to get there. The app lists all the acts and then lets you slice and dice them by day and stage. There’s a version of “Coachooser,” which is the personalized agenda on the website. Again, you can break it down by day and stage.
You can take photos within the app, add a caption and submit it to Coachella.com. There’s also a friend finder that lets you list your partners in crime and share your location. (We didn’t have a chance to test this functionality before opening day.) If that doesn’t do it for you, though, you can always use another free app like Loopt to find your peeps. Again, in the arena of lost and found, the interactive map will help you figure out where you are, where you need to be and how to get there. It lists the important stuff like the stages, tents, water stations and where your friends are.
Bottom line: This app is clean, clear and concise. Just enough info sprinkled with a little interactivity.
There are three other apps offering guides to Coachella...
• Rock On Coachella 2009 (99 cents) will offer daily schedules that are fairly easy to read and understand, a personalized lineup, live updates and artist details. The artists pages offer when and where they are playing, their genres and links to their various Web pages. You can also add an artist to your lineup from that page. The On Stage feature tells you who’s playing right now.
• The Un-Official Coachella Guide ($1.99) is primarily a compilation of links – many of them to the Coachella website and Google. All of the information is there, it just takes a lot of clicks to get where you’re going. And once you’re there, there’s so much information available through links that your eyes might gloss over. Info includes what to do and where to eat. Users are invited to contribute their own reports, stories, poems advice and photos.
• Music Festival: Coachella Edition ($1.99) actually isn’t bad in terms of usability but really may not be worth the price of admission considering that you have cheaper (and free) options. It offers an offline schedule that you can tap to update, which could be nice for iPod Touch users. You can see the lineup by day and time, search by artist and either add them to your agenda or find them on iTunes. It also offers a flat map to orient you with the layout. You’re on your own for directions.
What it is: Basically, it’s your digital concierge. Track down just about anything you might need while in the Coachella Valley, whether it’s a place to stay or to find Wi-Fi. Another cool feature is that it’ll find nearby gas stations and list their prices.
Since parking at Coachella can be a less than sunny task, iFound may be a godsend. It lets you record where you leave your car by GPS or triangulation, a photo and even a voice recording. It’ll give you walking and driving directions back to your car, and you can share its location with friends via e-mail. You do need Internet access for this to work.
Bottom line: This app has everything you might need. If you have to go with a free app, you could go with AroundMe (it lacks the gas and parking features).
What it is: Truth in advertising here. It has your basic info including your name, age, blood type, emergency contacts and medications. You can also list any medical conditions, allergies and insurance information. This is a basic emergency-card app. But if you or your friends are prone to bouts of bloody clumsiness, you might consider upgrading, so to speak, to the Emergency Aid app ($1.99). In addition to being able to add your personal profile data, you get the 411 on 911 emergencies. It has just about everything you could need in the desert, short of what to do if you are viciously attacked by a rabid roadrunner.
Bottom line: If you pass out from heat stroke or have an allergic reaction to something you eat at the festival, your iPhone can speak for you.
What it is: The eerie glow of cellphone screens has become ubiquitous at concerts and events. But there’s just something visceral about flicking the lid off a lighter, sparking that baby up and holding it high. This app gives you the virtual experience of all of that – the flame will linger and lilt from side to side, but will never blow out.
Bottom line: Since the festival is going a little old-school with some of its acts (like Paul McCartney), you can give a retro concert staple a high-tech twist. Besides, this way you won’t set on fire that head of hair that’s crammed in way too close to you. Zippo also offers a free version that you can ‘engrave’ and customize.
What it is: We all know Coachella is in the desert. It’s hot. But how hot? Sure, you could use the weather app that’s native on iPhones.
Festivalgoers take a break from the heat and lie on the grass at Coachella 2008. Credit: Jay Clendenin / Los Angeles Times
But if you have room to spare among your 148 possible apps, you might consider this bad boy. It gives you more. For those of us wise in the ways of degrees of heat, we know that “hot” or “85” really isn’t enough info.
Is there a breeze? How violent is that breeze? How humid is it? All of that info is available in this app. There’s also video, but we’re not particularly impressed with that. (It’s a bit too “I love the ‘80s” meets public access TV, to be honest.)
Bottom line: How hot is too hot? This will help you figure out your sunscreen choices and ponder a safer beer-to-water ratio.
What it is: Come on, admit it. You don’t know every song that’s played at Coachella. There’s no shame in it, but there’s also no need for it. Tap the app and tag the music, and Shazam will give you the song title, artist and lyrics (so you can sing along). The festival rules say no recording devices. But this technically isn’t recording – it’s snagging and tagging. No files are saved on your device.
Bottom line: It could be a cool, low-maintenance way to keep track of your favorites from the festival, add photos -- and maybe even share the memories and music with friends who didn’t get to go.
Check out a suggestion on how you can keep your iPhone and other gadgets charged while you’re out in the desert. In the comments below, tell us what other apps you think are Coachella must-haves.
-- Michelle Maltais
Subscribe to the Appiphilia RSS feed and follow us on Twitter.
