If you're talking about 2-meter radios, you're going to need a ham radio license to use them in the US. It's not hard, but it is necessary. Also, FCC regulations do not permit "broadcasting" on these bands. That is, you can't play music over them. Having a music festival playing in the background is flirting with that rule. You're better off just using FRS radios.
The "23 mile range" business is very optimistic. You'll probably never see over 5 miles of range unless it's line-of-sight between two mountains. However, they'd be great at most festivals or e.g. Burning Man. Look for something FRS or GMRS. There are also 2-meter (~144mhz) radios which parent is talking about like e.g. a Baaofeng UV-5R which are inexpensive software-defined radios that can operate on licensed and unlicensed bands. If you get something like that, you should be aware of the power restrictions of FRS and GMRS and the licensing requirements for GMRS.
TL;DR unless you intend to get pretty into it and just want something for festivals and something to give to non-radio-geek friends to use, just get a FRS or GMRS radio. Motorola and Uniden both make quality sets that will work up to a few miles away at festivals.
FYI: There aren't any unlicensed bands you can legally use a Baofeng UV-5R on. They're only approved for use on the business or amateur bands.
Unfortunately all the unlicensed bands require band-specific hardware certification, which the Baofeng's don't qualify for, for various reasons.
Also, the Baofeng's aren't software-defined radios. Those cost much more money. :) It's just a standard programmable VHF/UHF radio, that happens to be very cheap.
hi sean, we say about 2 miles in all of our documentation. we agree 23 miles isn't realistic. i have personally seen 2 miles plus results hiking, skiing, etc. hope that helps
Many commercial two-way radios support both GMRS (up to 5 watts - $65 for 5-year license) and FRS (up to 500 milliwatts - no license req'd). Most users just ignore the GMRS functionality on their 2-ways.
I'm not sure I follow. The model you linked is an FRS/GMRS two-way radio (aka walkie talkie), a perfect example of what I described (it's all right there in the product title). I think we're still talking about the same thing, although I did mislabel it as 'commerical' when I meant 'consumer' radio :)
There are two-way radios that support text. Since a lot of newer radios are using digital signalling, it's not hard to add in.
Off the top of my head, any of these would work: Amateur radios that have D-STAR (connected to an Android phone), Garmin Rino, Motorola DTR, and TriSquare (discontinued, but you can find them on eBay).