Festival Survival Guide

Last updated on April 6th, 2021 at 11:37 am

You’ve got your tickets, you’ve packed all your gear, and the excitement is building… But how on Earth do you survive an entire festival once you get there?

We think that planning your trip well and being prepared is the key to having a fun, enjoyable time at a festival– it’s easy to make small mistakes that could affect your whole trip, and thats why we’ve put together this Festival Survival Guide for you.

Contents of this Blog:

1. Knowing your tent
2. Packing and Preparing
3. Choosing your spot
4. Inside your tent
5. Claiming your ground
6. Having fun
7. Packing Away
8. Festival Infographic

Knowing your Tent

The last thing you want to do, is spoil the fun by not knowing how to set up your tent.

It sounds obvious, but take the instructions with you – and practice setting up the tent before you leave for your trip, so you’ll be familiar with what goes where.

We also think, the bigger the tent, the better. A two-man tent allows for two people laying side by side – and it’s guaranteed you’ll take up the entire space between yourself and who you’re camping with when you sleep. So, we recommend getting a size up, to account for all of your equipment and belongings.

Packing and Being Prepared

The last thing you want is to get to the festival, and realise you’ve forgotten something important. There is usually a shop carrying the essentials on the Festival site, but it’s best to avoid needing to purchase this.

• Your tickets!
• Small toiletries – including wet wipes
• A portable phone charger
• Plastic bags
• Gaffer tape – tent poles could snap, if someone falls on your tent!
• Small selection of snacks (if allowed)
• Required medication (and, maybe some paracetamol…)
• Suncream
• Water

Choosing Your Spot

Once you’ve chosen a spot for your tent, you’re probably stuck there for the rest of the festival, so you want to make sure you’ve chosen wisely.

Arrive as prompt and early to the festival site as you can, this gives you loads more options when it comes down to setting camp, people will always choose the good spots first, and you don’t want to find that you end up next to the toilets… (trust us, they’re not always pleasant!).

We would advise choosing a spot near some sort of landmark, that way, when you’re hours into the night – you’ll remember where the tent is, in relation to that landmark. You’ll thank us later.

Also, get as far away as possible from the security and camp flood lights, unless you like to sleep in beaming LED light.

If there’s forecasted rain – as always in England -avoid trees. They seem like a nice dry spot to camp, but you’ll find that the birds will take a liking to your tent, and after rain, the drops from the trees will like it, too.

Inside your Tent

Your tent is your home for the next few days and so maximum comfort is key.

Have you ever woken up with the inside of your tent damp? Either way, you don’t want to.

We recommend keeping all of your belongings at the end of your tent inside a waterproof bag, and we would also suggest having waterproof mats on the floor of the tent – especially underneath where you’ll sleep, as they’ll keep the moisure from the ground away from you and your belongings.

We also recommend taking a camping pillow because they pack small, and add to your comfort. If you’re not able to do this, then take a pillow case, and a jumper inside the case will do the job for you to sleep on.

Claiming Your Camp Ground

If you are attending the festival in a group, we would suggest camping around in a circle or square, with all the tents facing each other. This “claims” your space, and keeps any potential intruders with their tents away.

If you do camp in a circle, it also creates a space in the middle of the tents that you can use to put your camp chairs and equipment, if not keeping them in your tent, and a good meeting area.

We might also suggest purchasing a Windsock or Flag for your tent, as this will make your tent stand out from the rest.

Having Fun

Once you’ve set up camp, and you’re confident that your tent wont fall over, it’s now time to enjoy yourself to the full.

To get maximum enjoyment out of your festival trip, we think that there’s a number of things you should do.

EAT!

Not to point out the obvious, but we recommend eating at least one full meal a day, don’t just rely on the snacks you’ve packed to see you through. There’s a higher chance of becoming sick if you’re not well fed.

DRINK!

Drink is essential, and no – we don’t mean alcohol, we mean water! You’ll want to be as hydrated as possible, especially if you’re going to be drinking alcohol on your trip. There’s a risk of all things such as sun stroke and dehydration – you don’t want either of those.

SUNCREAM!

Suncream, suncream, suncream! You can never get enough of this stuff and it’s so important. You don’t want to be that bright red friend in all the photos, we’ve all made that mistake, don’t let it be you.

Packing Away

The fun of the festival is over, and now it comes to packing up.

Please, do not leave your tent and rubbish behind – think of the person who has to trek the whole field and clear up after everyone who does that. We think taking some plastic bags is a really good idea, and if you clear up as you go, it’s even better, and means way less to do when you’re leaving.

We say, leave early, or leave late. Plan you getaway to leave before everyone has woken up, or after everyone has left – otherwise you’ll be stuck in a queue of people trying to get out, and a queue of cars waiting to go home.

Festival Infographic

If you liked this blog post, or want to buy more festival tickets… you might want to take a look at our ‘Best UK Festivals’ blog post.

Happy Camping!