Every festivalgoer's dream came true at Oppikoppi 2013, as beer literally fell from the sky.
The music festival, held on a dusty farm in Northam, Limpopo, had an extra special guest this year - a drone that parachuted beers to revellers for the duration of the popular three-day event. Cape Town-based aerial cinematography company, Darkwing Aerials, designed and piloted the unmanned aerial vehicle at the annual festival.
Thirsty individuals simply needed to place an order via the BeerDrone smartphone app. The drone pilots then sent an SMS to the person confirming if they were at their campsite, after which the drone was dispensed, travelling 15m into the air to drop a plastic container filled with beer, and attached to a tiny parachute, to the location, based on GPS data rendered from the person's phone.
As the concept is still in the testing phase, there was no charge for the drone-dispensed beverages, said a representative from festival organiser, Hilltop Live, noting that 300 complementary beers were distributed.
According to the Hilltop rep, the wind initially proved a problem. "On Friday, the wind picked up quite a bit, which affected some of the deliveries. But other than that, everything went well."
The Oppi beer-dropping drone was built in SA, and according to Carel Hoffmann, Oppikoppi festival director, the flying machine has been nicknamed "Manna" after a biblical story from the Old Testament about bread falling from the sky. Darkwing Aerials co-founder Dean Engela was happy with the trial and confirmed that the concept will be showcased at a festival in the US in September.
Also making its mark at the event this year, Samsung Electronics offered festivalgoers the chance to win a warm shower, charge their phones and use various electronic amenities like hairdryers, at the branded Samsung hub. Also, for the third year running, Standard Bank took the event cashless with a "tap 'n go" payment system.
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