Orange GlastoNav – your perfect festival buddy

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Orange has released an update to their GlastoNav app ahead of this weekend’s festival. The app will work on most smartphones and across all networks.

GlastoNav will provide info on all the bands performing at the festival – with bios written by The Guardian. More useful than that is the stage-times feature which should work out a darned sized cheaper than buying one of those plastic lanyards at the site.

Also included is an interactive map which will provide details of the whole site, including opening times of specific venues and directions between stages. The interactive map will also be used for competitions and promotions across the weekend.

Another useful feature is the My Schedule where you can not only plan your Glastonbury experience but also save your friend’s schedules too.

GlastoNav is free direct from Orange although, at 350kb, some data charges may be applicable depending on your mobile plan. Interactive features may also require a data connection as well so be aware of that.

My Glasto tips: Go see Jarvis and don’t miss Blur. Wear plenty of protection – from the sun. Eat, drink and be merry but don’t eat the mushroom omelettes. Drugs are bad. Mmmkay?

Download festival considering cashless wristbands for beer purchases

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Wet festivals suck, especially wet rock festivals. If you’re deep in a mosh pit, and suddenly your wallet comes out of your trousers and falls into the mud, then you’ve essentially lost all your cash, cards and anything else you keep in it. Absolutele nightmare.

So Live Nation UK, which runs Download Festival, are experimenting with a form of cashless wristband that you ‘charge up’ in advance at the start of the festival, and then simply swipe your wrists over a scanner to buy food and drink, etc. I suspect there’d also be some form of top-up station, too – like an Oyster one, for when you overspend on the first day and run out of cash.

It’ll be great for preventing theft (for both stall owners and punters) as well as helping combat drugs problems onsite – dealers aren’t likely to have scanners. Any lost wristbands can be cancelled and replaced immediately with a new one with the same amount of cash on it.

Download Festival (via CMU Daily)

At least your BT bill money is going somewhere decent – the Isle of Wight Festival!

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Now, before disgruntled BT customers start complaining that they should give their customer service higher priority than sponsoring music festivals, listen up.

Tickets for the Isle of Wight Festival sold out quite a while back, so if you’ve been cursing your slow ticket-buying fingers for making you miss bands such as the Sex Pistols, The Kaiser Chiefs and The Police (I know I’m annoyed at the missed opportunity of seeing Sting in tight trousers and muscle shirts), the news that more last-chance tickets will be on offer with thanks to BT’s sponsorship should make you perk up a bit. Especially after you glance at that photo of Sting again. Cor…

BT is obviously loving being associated with something as ‘young’ and ‘cool’ as the Isle of Wight Festival, with their Group Managing Director for Consumer, Gavin Patterson, claiming “this is a proud first for BT. Being associated with an event like this reflects how BT has transformed as a business…

Carlsberg-backed Tuborg beer opens music social-networking site

tuborgbeer.jpg Stop salivating over that little .jpeg of the Tuborg beer on the left there, it’s not even 11am. You have to wait another hour before you can start fantasising over beer. After all, it’s only Tuesday.

Apparently the Carlsberg-owned beer brand Turborg has just launched a music-based networking portal which may just give MySpace a run for its money. Targeting 18-25 year olds, the site gives users information about bands touring around the UK, and even reviews written by some of the best music journalists in the industry….

It's not quite a green-painted toe, but these Big Lebowski Urban Achiever Action Figure sets sure are Dude-worthy

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Whether you love the film or hate it, any opportunity to drink White Russians is sure to be a welcome reprieve from this ‘blistering’ summer we’re facing in London. So, if you can make your way down to ye olde London Towne on the 30th of August, you’re in for a treat worthy of the finest Dude around. Yep, the Big Lebowski Festival is coming to town!

Sadly I’m in Berlin that weekend covering all things IFA for you, so I’ll have to contend with one of these Big Lebowski Urban Achiever Action Figure Sets when they’re released come October, for $33.99. I’m sceptical about whether a pair of bowlers can be classed as action figures…