Last month, Tinder launched Festival Mode on its app in partnership with various festivals like EDC Las Vegas, HARD Summer, Hangout Fest, Firefly, and more. In theory, it sounds like a great way to meet people going to the same events as you as they’ll likely have a very similar taste in music. In practice… not so much.
Stereogum writer Julia Gray was brave enough to try it herself, and the reality is it’s pretty much Tinder — but at a music festival. In fact, a lot the matches she made based on the Governors Ball festival badge on the app weren’t even aware the function, nor what the festival was.
Gray describes her time at the festival on Tinder with all too much familiarity.
“Kevin, 22” was my first match. He also had the Governors Ball] sticker. His bio read: “Irish boy over for the summer. Part time personal trainer. Full time virgin. If anyone has numbers for green please help me out.”
I did not have any numbers for green but I started the conversation anyway: “Gov ball?”
He replied: “Don’t even know what it is haha.”
I thought it best he not know and unmatched him.
As Gray later points out, the functionality Tinder is largely lost when you can’t actually connect to the app, which is a common difficulty found at festivals where service is lacking.
Read her full account the experience here.