Gallery: Top tech for festival season

If you're planning to attend an all day festival or concert this year, you might want to bring something along to keep you in touch--or relieved.

By Andy Smith, Contributor on June 27, 2008

1 of 7 Andy Smith/ZDNET

If you're planning to attend an all day festival or concert this year, you might want to bring something along to keep you in touch--or relieved.

It's a long way from Woodstock but for the Glastonbury festival this weekend, Tim Ferguson of silicon.com has brought together the most interesting tech O2 and Orange have come up with to improve the experience.

This is Orange's Recharge Pod which is being used at Glastonbury. It uses solar and wind power to charge up festival goers' mobile phones. It can charge up to 100 phones at a time.

Credit: Orange

2 of 7 Andy Smith/ZDNET

Here's what is inside the tent.

3 of 7 Andy Smith/ZDNET

Meanwhile if you don't want to wait for a spot in the tent, O2 is using pedal power as a green way to keep your mobile phone going for its customers at the summer festivals.

Gig goers at the O2 Wireless Festival in London's Hyde Park will be able to use three of these bikes to charge their phones themselves.

Credit: O2

4 of 7 Andy Smith/ZDNET

Orange customers can use the GlastoNav service to locate themselves on the festival map using GPS.

They can contact friends to tell them where they are and how long they plan to be there and use it to find their way back to their tent in the dark.

The system also allows people to create a planner for the festival weekend, meaning they know when their favorite bands are on and how to find the right stages.

Credit: Orange

5 of 7 Andy Smith/ZDNET

O2 will allow selected guests to access luxury toilets by scanning contactless NFC wristbands on special readers.

The 'VIPee' NFC toilets will be available to 100 existing O2 NFC trial participants along with 200 customers (plus guests) per day. The wristbands will be given out at random by O2 Angels.

Credit: silicon.com

6 of 7 Andy Smith/ZDNET

And Orange has come up with yet another way to charge your mobile: the Orange Dance Charge.

With the help of renewable energy specialist GotWind--also responsible for the Orange Recharge Pod--users can strap the device to their arm and charge their phone using kinetic energy created as they throw shapes into the wee hours.

Credit: Orange