Get out your fanny packs and be sure to drink plenty of water. It's music festival season.
That's right. For the next few months, festivalgoers the world over will jam out to some of the hottest artists in music by day and camp out by night so they can be first in line to do it all over again. They'll see breathtaking performances, once-in-a-lifetime collaborations and headline-grabbing appearances that only those lucky enough to be there will have the joy of experiencing.
As you can see, it's a total bummer if you aren't able to attend. However, not everyone has the desire to be crushed by a bunch of sweaty bodies all weekend with only a terrible sunburn to show for it, not to mention that ticket prices for music festivals tend to be exorbitant.
But fear not, my friends, because you can experience everything that goes down at the most highly anticipated music festivals across the country this season while also being as comfortable as lying in bed in your pajamas. Many music festivals livestream their performances these days, so all you need is an Internet connection and a device that can hook up to it to catch all of the action.
The Ultra Music Festival is one of the first music festivals of the season, kicking off on March 27 and running through March 29. Though the EDM festival was streamed live on YouTube last year, it will be switching things up for 2015. Twitch, a platform known for streaming video games, recently announced that it will be making a big move into the music space by livestreaming the Ultra Music Festival this year. Beginning March 27, you can head over to twitch.tv/ultra to watch headliners like David Guetta, Steve Aoki and Tiesto spin the night away live from Miami.
Unfortunately, the livestreaming schedules for many of the other upcoming music festivals haven't been announced yet. However, several of them have livestreamed performances in the past, so it seems likely that they will once again broadcast acts live all over the world.
For instance, Coachella has streamed live on YouTube for the past few years, so hopefully we'll all be glued to our computer screens once again to catch the likes of AC/DC, Jack White and Drake headlining the festival, which takes place over two weekends in mid-April. Bonnaroo, which will take place from June 11 to June 14 this year in Manchester, Tenn., was also livestreamed on YouTube last year. In a move similar to the Ultra Music Festival, Lollapalooza, whose 2015 lineup was recently announced, partnered with Red Bull Media House in 2014 to livestream the Chicago music festival through Red Bull TV on the web and on a bunch of mobile devices. Since Red Bull Sound Select is sponsoring Lollapalooza again this year, it's possible that we'll be able to catch the music festival on this platform.
However, it's going to be interesting to see if any music festivals use Meerkat, the new app that lets you livestream video in real time from your Twitter account. It's only been a few weeks after its launch, and there are already concerns about privacy when people use the app. Still, music festivals are known for being free spirited and a bit subversive, so I wouldn't be surprised if concertgoers and the organizers of the festivals alike used Meerkat to complement or lead their event coverage. Music festivals are about bringing people of all walks of life together to experience the magic of live music, after all. Meerkat may just be the best way to do that.
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