Page 237 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

20 December 2019

CU LTUR E

A New Service Locks Your

Phone Up During Concerts—

and It’s Heavenly

B Y C O RE Y SEY M O U R
December 20, 2019

Ever been phone-shamed at a concert? You know: Just when you’ve framed the perfect photo or
video of the performance, or the crowd—or are about to share a snap to Instagram—the artist

delivers a pointed screed from the stage asking if everybody, for just one song, could put their
phones away and be in the moment, if you all could try to experience what’s going on together, in

real time? I have, and...it’s awkward. Good, but awkward, as that faint sense of shame and self-
righteousness—I mean, look at those other people who simply can’t leave their phones alone for
five minutes!—envelops the space.

What’s surprisingly less awkward: not having a phone to put away to begin with. More and more
performers—from Madonna to Childish Gambino, Haim, and Justin Timberlake—have been
enlisting the services of Yondr, a tech company that provides phone-locking pouches to artists and

venues: You show up, go through security, scan your tickets—and lock your phone away until the
end of the performance. (You keep the pouch itself with you at all times.) Have an emergency (or

do you simply need to post that pic)? Leave the performance area and use an unlocking device to
open up the pouch.

The latest institution to introduce phone-free concerts? Almost shockingly, it’s Manhattan’s

esteemed Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, which debuted Yondr pouches during its
recent White Light Festival, which centers around compositions and performances that speak to
an inner or spiritual life.

“We had three things come together,” says Leah Johnson, Lincoln Center’s chief communications

and marketing officer: “Henry Timms, our new CEO, told us about an amazing quote from the first
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