This weekend at All Points East, festival-goers were able to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy the epic views whilst the likes of The xx were performing on the mainstage. Thousands stopped by to capture their Super Slow-mo selfie and shared their moment using #GalaxyS9 and #withGalaxy.

And this is just the start. Throughout the rest of the festival season, Samsung are offering a ‘Golden Ticket’ opportunity; access to the VIP platform with incredible panoramic views of the festival. For a chance to win, festival goers can share their Super Slow-mo video on social media – up to 15 winners will be chosen daily.

For those simply wondering how to take the best festival snaps and videos on their Galaxy S9, the camera has two key features, perfect for capturing the best festival moments:

• Super low-light – a revolutionary technology that adapts like the human eye, meaning you can take stunning festival stills; from bright afternoon sets to moonlight raves
• Super Slow-mo – if you’re not able to visit the Samsung viewing platform, you can take your own Super Slow-mo videos on your Galaxy S9 to capture epic on-site dance moves

Sam Grant, Chief Marketing Officer at Samsung Electronics says: ‘We can’t wait to share our on-site experience with music fans this festival season. Whether capturing low-light sunset gig shots or taking a Super Slow-mo video on the Galaxy S9, we are excited to enable festival goers to capture their moment in the best way possible.’

You can check out some of the best highlights from All Points East by searching for the #withGalaxy and #GalaxyS9 hashtag on Twitter and Instagram.

To find out more about the Galaxy S9 camera visit: http://www.samsung.com/global/galaxy/galaxy-s9/camera/

Generally speaking, festivals are great fun. Losing your mates before you’ve even had the chance to utter the words ‘right by the massive speaker at  the main stage’, soaking up the atmosphere with great food and drink and being surrounded by hundreds of beautiful people in their flower crowns and crop tops – there’s not a lot to hate.

On top of that, you also get to see some of your favourite bands/DJs live. And while we’ve all got pretty good at capturing the perfect group picture, sometimes it’s nice to get one of the musicians you’ve trekked across a field to watch. For the memories, right? But as anyone who’s ever been to a festival will know, it’s virtually impossible to snap anything decent. Either you’re too far away, or the light is so rubbish you might as well be taking selfies in your pitch black tent.

What you really need to capture your best festival moment is technology that’ll do all the hard work for you. Enter Samsung’s Galaxy S9. I took the phone to All Points East, a new weekend festival in Victoria Park, East London, and used it to capture a variety of content throughout the day.

Naturally, the snaps of (soulful British singer) Sampha at 8pm turned out great – the sun was beginning to set and everything looked mesmerising. The Live Focus feature meant I could get some pretty awesome selfies in front of the set.

Where the camera really excelled, however, was in a hot, sweaty tent during Justice’s hour and a half set. It was dark and the stage moved consistently, shooting different coloured beams and lights into the audience. Chuck in a rowdy crowd, and you’ve got pretty tricky conditions – yet the phone took exceptional pictures. The rear camera features something called F1.5 aperture mode, and multi-frame noise reduction, which adapts to low and super bright light automatically –like the human eye.

What this means in reality is you literally don’t have to do anything. Simply press the middle button and your photos come out clear and bright – no post-production in four different apps needed. Video is equally impressive. Again, the camera adjusts and captures crystal-clear footage (that you’ll actually want to Instagram).

Of course, you don’t have to let everything be decided for you. The camera settings can be adjusted by hand, including the aperture (brightness) to get the picture just so. During The XX’s headline performance, I was standing on the Samsung platform (available to all festival-goers) from which you can see panoramic views over the main stage. I was pretty far back, and the stage was being doused in white light from either side. To get a clearer picture, I simply dragged the ‘lightbulb’ dial down until I could see more details in the background.

The other fun bit? Super Slow-motion video. There are two modes: the auto detect function (you tell the phone where to watch for movement) or manual mode (you just select when you want to record) – and off you go. For a festival, the latter is probably better because you don’t exactly have control over a moving crowd/band on stage. You can then share the videos as a gif, do things like reverse the video and set it as a moving wallpaper. Festival goers who haven’t brought their S9 handsets with them, can also head down to get their own Super Slow-mo selfie video at the Samsung platform with music and a cool backdrop.

Essentially, the possibilities are endless. Well, as long as you find your mates again.

You can check out some of the best highlights from All Points East by searching for the #WithGalaxy and #GalaxyS9 hashtag on Twitter and Instagram and you can read more about the Galaxy S9 phone here: http://www.samsung.com/my/smartphones/galaxy-s9.

About Author:

Guest article has been written by roving reporter who writes for numerous titles including; ELLE UK, VICE and BBC.

Photo accredited to Tom Atkinson 

Music festivals don’t really get much quirkier than Bestival. And as the crowds  – decked out in wellington boots, colourful fancy dress and glittery face paint  – descended upon a rainy field in Dorset, it felt like a great way to say good-bye to another British summer.

Photo accredited to Tom Atkinson 

Looking at those festivalgoers taking shelter from yet another shower, you might wonder why so many people choose not only to pay those hefty admission prices, but actually count themselves lucky to get tickets to these sold-out events. Of course there’s a lot of fantastic music on offer, but you could listen to great music in the comfort of your own home, without enduring the smell of portaloos, paying five pounds for a pint, or getting covered in mud.

It all comes down to one thing though: Creating a truly memorable experience. And technology’s greatest magic is to help people create, capture and share those special moments. This is also what drew so many people to the Samsung 360 Infinity Selfie experience at Bestival, which gave people the chance of creating a truly unique souvenir of their festival experience. That souvenir could then be shared with friends, strangers and those who hadn’t been lucky enough to get a ticket and be there to share the moment in person.

This is also why immersive technologies such as 360 degree capture and virtual reality are proving so popular. It’s becoming a lot easier to capture life in all its vivid glory. I, for one, always love watching people try Virtual Reality for the first time. When I visited my family in Brazil last year I took the Samsung Gear VR and Galaxy S7 with me, and treated everyone in my family to their first VR experience. I literally never get tired of seeing them gasp in wonder and delight.

I had a similar experience at the Bestival Hypercube. Because even though I had seen the Hypercube in action at Reading Festival the previous week, I enjoyed seeing each new group being genuinely wowed and delighted as the doors opened and the mirror chamber was revealed in all its glory.

So I made my way over to the shiny structure, which managed to gleam even in the cloudy weather. Anywhere else the iridescent 40-foot cube would have stood out as the strangest thing around, but at Bestival it was competing with towering sculptures of robots and astronauts, a giant mirror disco ball, an inflatable cathedral were couples were invited to get married (I have my doubts whether the ceremonies were legally binding, but they looked like good fun anyway) a Helter-skelter, and a real castle which belonged to the estate hosting the festival.

As I joined the queue, the friendly ushers in the black Samsung Hypercube t-shirts did a brilliant job of psyching up the crowd lining up for their turn, and letting them know what to expect once they stepped into the cube’s antechamber. “There are mirrors EVERYWHERE, vain people LOVE it.” our friendly guide joked. I remembered him as we’d met him the previous week at Reading, and although his voice was finally going a bit croaky after introducing so many groups to the concept of the infinity room and a collective 360 degree selfie, he still managed to sound enthusiastic about it.

While they waited the crowd was also invited to experience some exclusive VR content on the new Samsung gear, and register their email addresses so that they could receive their selfies via email after the experience.

Photo accredited to Tom Atkinson 

When it was our turn to go in, each person got handed some distinctly unfashionable plastic overshoes, but the reason for that soon becomes clear as you enter the dazzling inner hypercube chamber. Every single surface is covered with glittering mirrors, and that includes the floor. Muddy wellies, while essential for getting that authentic festival look, would rather spoil the effect.

At the centre of the room was a pillar with about a dozen or so Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphones, setup so that users could quickly choose what kind of music and graphics they wanted to be part of their hyper-selfie experience. Every individual choice went into the collective mix, causing groups of strangers to bond, as it felt like we were making a connection to each other through the process of creating that moment together.

Photo accredited to Tom Atkinson 

Having recently upgraded to the Galaxy S8 and new Samsung gear, I can see how far the technology has evolved in less than a year, making it so much easier not only to watch, but also to capture and share your own enhanced, immersive content. That’s the game changer, because experiences are so much more vivid when they manage to be both personal and collective. Just like going to a great music festival, or dancing your heart out in the Samsung Hypercube.

The ability to create social content that people can (and want to) share is will take such technologies to the next level and make consumers use them as routinely and naturally as they check their smartphone. Striking the balance between simplicity, intuitive design and providing a wow factor is crucial, and we’re quickly getting to that point. But with experiences like the Hypercube, and technology like we see in the Samsung Galaxy S8 and the latest generation Samsung Gear headsets, I believe we might get there even sooner than a lot of people think.

Photo accredited to Tom Atkinson 

You can check out some of the best highlights from both Reading and Bestival by searching for the #ShareTheStage hashtag on Twitter.

Author Bio

Alice is a technology journalist, consultant, and enthusiast. She is an experienced communications strategist advising many innovative start-ups as well as large corporations. In addition to running her own Tech Trends blog she regularly freelances for other tech and lifestyle titles.

Visitors in the queue were able to view VR content from rock duo Royal Blood, and took selfies on the 360 cameras, before entering the tunnel that led them into the Hypercube. Once inside, the Samsung Galaxy S8 took centre stage, controlling the audio and visual effects, building to create a fully immersive experience. On Sunday evening, DJ Max Hagenbach joined the action to entertain guests within the Hypercube.

Over 4000 festival-goers enjoyed the experience, with users continuing to share their #ShareTheStage moment.

The Hypercube will complete its summer festivals journey at Bestival next week (7 – 10^th September), in Dorset.

For more info on the Hypercube, please visit: www.samsung.com/uk/hypercube.

To read more about the Hypercube at Boardmasters see here.

Follow the action live via #ShareTheStage.

 

31 July 2017 – With festival season in full swing, Samsung has announced a fully interactive, audio-visual experience that will be visiting some of the UK’s biggest music festivals this summer.

Building on the success of the ‘Hypercube’, which toured the UK in 2016, the 12 metre high structure will be popping up at some of the UK’s best-loved festivals until September, after kicking off at the British Summer Time festival in Hyde Park, London.

Whilst some of the world’s biggest acts perform on stage, the Hypercube 360 Infinity Selfie experience allows fans to be at the heart of their very own action-packed, epic user-controlled performance, thanks to the Samsung Galaxy S8 smartphone.

When approaching the entrance to the Hypercube, at either Boardmasters, Reading Festival or Bestival, festival-goers will have the chance to immerse themselves in a Virtual Reality experience, featuring exclusive content, via the Samsung Gear VR.

Upon entering the Hypercube 360 Infinity Selfie, participants will find themselves transported into another dimension where they will be at the epi-centre of an adrenaline-fuelled moment, up to 30 festival fans at a time will be able to create their own unique 360 Infinity Selfie using Samsung devices, with individual Samsung Galaxy S8 handsets controlling different light and sound attributes inside the Hypercube. Each unique experience will be captured in 360 from a camera suspended from the roof, and will be shared with festival-goers as they exit the space.

The Hypercube 360 Infinity Selfie will arrive at:

• Boardmasters – 9^th-13^th August, Cornwall
• Reading Festival – 25^th-27^th August, Reading
• Bestival – 7^th-10^th September, Dorset

“At Samsung we want to give everyone the chance to enjoy a brilliant summer of UK events, whether they are there in person or seeing something incredible created by their friends. Through the new Galaxy S8 and Gear 360 camera, we will give people the opportunity to create and share phenomenal personalised content through our partnerships with some of the UK’s best-loved music festivals. We will be touring some uniquely brilliant experiences, that only Samsung could produce, that ultimately make people feel differently about our brand and products” Said Sam Grant, Marketing Director at Samsung Electronics UK.

Those unlucky ones without a ticket to some of this summer’s hottest festivals can still be part of the experience, as Samsung and Royal Blood have just released an exclusive 360 video. The official 360 music video was shot live from the Infinity Room in April, for Royal Blood’s brand new single ‘I Only Lie When I Love You’.

For more info on the Hypercube activity, please visit: www.samsung.com/uk/hypercube