Phone chargers, WiFi, speakers and printers — all the gadgets you need to make the most of festival season
FESTIVAL season is here, so get ready for music, mud and mobile phone battery anxiety. Ahead of Glastonbury, which kicks off on Wednesday, we reveal the best tech to help you survive and thrive. 4GEE WiFi Mini From £40 at EE EE has loads of extra masts to cover Glastonbury, but signals at other festivals […]
FESTIVAL season is here, so get ready for music, mud and mobile phone battery anxiety.
Ahead of Glastonbury, which kicks off on Wednesday, we reveal the best tech to help you survive and thrive.
4GEE WiFi Mini
From £40 at EE
EE has loads of extra masts to cover Glastonbury, but signals at other festivals can be patchy.
Connect up to 20 devices to this router. Buy outright and get PAYG data from £5 for 5GB (that’s a lot of Instagram posts).
Airgo Gear Buggy
£64.99, Go Outdoors
INGENIOUS folding trolley perfect for carrying your festival gear from the car to the campsite.
Constructed from robust steel, it has chunky wheels built for rough terrain, a tough, fast-drying fabric outer and an easy-grip, long-pull handle.
Tile Pro Bluetooth tracker
£27.99, Currys
CLIP it to your tent – or a friend – then when you can’t find them, use the phone app to get a location on a map or make the Tile play a loud sound.
Out of Bluetooth range (200ft) you can see last location.
Alcatel 3025X phone
£29 sim-free, O2
LOSING a £500 smartphone in the mosh pit is going to hurt. But that’s where Alcatel’s budget blower comes in.
It is cheap enough to take the risk – and with its four-hour talk time and 200 hours on standby, you won’t have to worry about charging.
Cygnett 10K wireless power bank
£69.95, Amazon
CHARGE two devices at the same time with twin USB ports.
Has enough juice for three to four full charges and boasts wireless charging for recent Apple, Samsung and Huawei devices. Digital indicator shows how much power is left.
Juice Slim 5K power bank
£14.99, was £30, Argos
THE leopard-print looks cool but other colours are cheaper. Up to 1.5 charges for most phones.
Recharge two phones at the same time at standard speed or one for “fast charge”.
Jam Zero Chill wireless portable speaker
£59.99, Argos
CONNECT via Bluetooth – works up to 100ft away – or plug via the included headphone lead.
Battery lasts 22 hours. Dustproof and waterproof for up to 3ft for half an hour – perfect for a rainy UK festival.
Glastonbury 2019
Free, by EE on iPhone or Android
AIMED at those going or watching at home, this digital guide makes it easy to plan who to watch and when.
Map shows you where you are at any point on the 900-acre site and lets you drop pins for, say, your car and tent.
Polaroid Mint Instant Print Camera
£79.99, Argos
CAMERA and printer in one. Take snaps like the original Polaroid to print right away (plus a digital version).
The 2x3in prints have a peel-off sticky back and are water, tear and smudge resistant. Comes with five Zink photo papers, and packs of 50 cost £25.
FIND PALS 2
Trusted Contacts, by Google on iPhone and Android
SIMILAR to Apple’s Find My Friends. This app by Google works across iPhones and Android devices.
Friends add each other – and can then share their location, or request pals to share the information.
Buying safely
CHECK the website or agent is a member of the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR), and that it is listed as an approved ticket seller on the event or festival’s official homepage.
If the price of a ticket looks too good to be true,then it probably is.
Fraudsters will often lure people in with heavily discounted deals for sought-after events.
Always look out for the padlock symbol displayed with the web address to ensure the site is legitimate.
Pay via credit card because this will provide added protection over other payment methods.
If you are paying a private seller, use Shieldpay to pay by bank transfer or card.
It will not release your cash until you are through the gate.
Buyers pay a small fee for using the service, depending on the value of payment.
Fake profile ticket scam
WHEN dance music fan David Newman and his pals decided to go to Brighton’s Wild Life festival, the fact it was sold out did not put them off.
They searched the event’s Facebook page and found plenty of tickets available from genuine-looking private sellers.
But even after carefully checking out the offers, their money still went to scammers.
The group bought one ticket that they discovered was fake when it did not work at the gate.
Two others they paid for never arrived. After receiving the cash by bank transfer, the sellers promptly disappeared.
In total, friends David, Josh and Jenny were conned out of £150.
They ended up paying the same amount at the gate to some festival-goers who had tickets to sell.
TV researcher David, 30, of Haggerston, East London, said: “We were desperate to go so joined a Facebook group for the festival, even though there was a ‘no resale’ policy.
“There were a few people selling tickets and we checked them out. They seemed legitimate. We checked their Facebook profiles and I spoke to them over the phone.
“After we’d transferred the money they disappeared, their profiles were deleted and their phones disconnected.
“The first guy we spoke to was really reasonable over the phone, had a convincing reason for not going and there was no sign of anything being wrong.
“I didn’t realise how easy it was to disappear. Now, I wouldn’t buy anything online again, I’d only go through the official processes.”
‘BOGUS SITES WITH WELL-KNOWN BRANDING’
David’s story is not uncommon. In the year to April 30, fraud-reporting centre Action Fraud reported 4,755 cases of ticket conning. That is 13 every day and on average, victims lose £365.
Young people desperate to get into sold-out gigs are targeted in particular. New statistics from Barclays revealed that 26 per cent of millennial festival-goers have fallen victim to a ticket scam, with more than a third falling for at least three different cons in the past two years.
The scams can happen in various ways. Like David, lots of people are conned into buying fake tickets on social media.
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Fraudsters also set up bogus ticket sites, often using well-known branding to give them the air of legitimacy.
Scam site goticketsuk.com, which pretended to sell concert and festival tickets, was shut down in 2017.
Victims who had used it were promised they would get their tickets at a time nearer to the event date, but they never did.
Protect against thieves
ONCE you are through the gates you need to be on guard against another type of crime – theft.
Revellers make easy targets because they are too busy drinking and partying.
During last week’s Download Festival in Derby, there were 29 thefts reported from tents and 32 from people.
Most of the pickings were phones and cash, according to Leicestershire Police.
Insurer Protect Your Bubble said most festival-goers pack their smartphones, mainly to keep in touch with their friends and also to show off on social media.
But almost a quarter of adults who have been to a festival have damaged or lost a phone or had one stolen.
Of those who had theirs taken, only a third had insurance.
Before you go, talk to your home insurer about getting cover for your valuables. GoCompare said it could cost as little as £1.50 a month to add £2,500 worth of cover for “items away from home”.
Keep your money and phone with you – even taking them to bed in your sleeping bag – or pay a few quid to use a festival locker.
Do not leave items unattended in your tent, even if it is padlocked, because you will not be covered.
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