One of the biggest complaints of revellers at last year’s Roskilde Festival – aside, of course, from the mixed weather – was the patchy-at-best phone service.
Many festival-goers, particularly those using mobile carrier 3, were unable to get a phone signal, making it difficult for them to connect with friends without employing old-school methods such as meeting at a predetermined time and place, which many would argue spoils the spontaneity of the festival experience.
And without a phone signal, concert-goers couldn’t share their experiences with the outside world. After all, if you see one of the hottest hipster bands out there, but can’t post on Instagram about it, did it really happen?
In response to the signal problems, both festival organisers and 3 have promised that things will be better this year. Acknowledging in a press release that its service “didn’t function well enough” last year, 3 announced that it would be septupling its network capacity at this year’s festival. The company blamed last year’s problems on its own popularity, claiming that a third of all the guests at the festival were customers of 3, putting a strain on its network.
The company has also entered a formal partnership with the Roskilde Festival and will be on site with two large stands where festival-goers can charge their smartphones and where 3’s customers can receive a service and even borrow a phone if they’ve broken theirs – a not-unheard-of scenario given the amount of partying that occurs over the festival’s nine days.
For those who aren’t 3 customers – or simply don’t believe their promises – Roskilde Festival is also offering a paid wi-fi signal on a first-come, first-served basis. The wi-fi signal will cover selected parts of the festival area for up to 20,000 users. The service costs 35 kroner and will provide a signal for the length of the festival.
Assuming your connection problems are solved, you may want to use your smartphone to follow Mid and West-Zealand Police on Twitter at @politirosk. Taking a page from Copenhagen Police, who successfully used Twitter to communicate with partiers during the Distortion festival, police will be giving Roskilde fans updates and safety tips throughout the festival. Sadly, on just the account's eighth tweet, police had to confirm the death of a 20-year-old Swedish man early on Monday morning. The police tweets are only being sent in Danish.
The Copenhagen Post will also be on hand during the Roskilde Festival, and we’ll be using Twitter and Facebook to give concert tips and general information. In addition to our official account @cphpost, you can follow news editor Justin Cremer at @justinCPH, multi-talented intern journalist Mike Hofman at @MikeHofman_ and music writer Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk at @MuTuk5z.
That is, of course, assuming our phones work.
