March 14, 2018

Planning For Your Summer Music Festival Experience

So the time has come and you’ve officially purchased tickets to the awesome music festival that you’ve been dying to go to for years. You are gathering up your friends and preparing for the time of your life. As you’ll realize for the first time when you hit the festival grounds to pitch your tent, the whole scene is way more overwhelming than you could’ve ever planned for. To be fully prepared, we’ll discuss some tips as you’re looking to plan your summer musical festival camping trip to make it as safe, successful and satisfying as possible.

Prep time 

 

Any good execution plan starts with pre-planning and a music festival is no different. To begin with, the first part of the planning process is purchasing your ticket for the event. For your event that you are attending, make sure to investigate how tickets work for the event. Are there single day tickets that you have to purchase many of or is the entire festival purchased on one ticket? Also be sure to check if camping tickets or passes need to be purchased ahead of time.

Once tickets are purchased, it is best to create a festival camping checklist where you will have a list of items to pack as you prepare to head to the festival. Your checklist should entail the items that we talk about in this article, along with any other items you deem necessary.

 

As you prepare to leave, the important things to ensure that you have directly on you at all times throughout the festival are your ticket, your identification card and any money/credit/debit cards that you’ll want to have on you. Ahead of time, think of how you’ll be organized and carry these items on the festival grounds. To have free hands, a fanny pack is always a great idea. A lockbox to attach to your vehicle is also essential to plan ahead for. The lockbox should contain both a spare car key and spare tent key in the case you would lose one or both of those keys on the grounds. The final important thing to do prior to leaving for the festival is to familiarize yourself with the festival grounds as best as possible. Most of the popular festivals have amazing websites with the layouts of the grounds right on the site. Get to know the site and, better yet, print a copy of the map of the site to have on you.

Timing is everything

 

As you embark for the festival, plan on arriving as early as you can to the festival grounds. First, this will allow you the opportunity to secure the best possible spot for camping that you can find. Ideal camping spots include those that are not too close, yet not too far away from the restroom or toilet facilities. The ideal parking and camping spot will also allow you to have a great plan for beating the thousands of people out of the grounds after the festival is over. Also, upon arrival, if you are planning on meeting up with friends, have a plan for where and when to meet and stick to that plan. Tens of thousands of people flock to the popular festivals and it is very easy to lose your friends, even before you find them!

Camping setup

 

Once you arrive at the festival grounds and have found your campsite, you can set up your site to your liking. Ahead of the trip, make sure to pick out the tent that is going to work for what you need. If you’ll have others staying with you, make sure to get a properly sized tent that will allow for all people to sleep and store their items in the tent. A good tent for summer camping will include a rain fly and will stay dry in the case the weather turns sour at the festival. A great sleeping bag and pillow should also be utilized at the festival to help get your beauty sleep. Once your tent is set up, it is important to have some sort of unique tent marker so you can find your tent in the sea of campers when you come back from the music grounds. Popular items include flags, lights or balloons that fly high in the air. The final piece for your tent is a lock with a key so you can lock up your tent while you are away.

Clothing

 

Your clothing for the festival will need to be planned ahead as well. It is necessary to think about the number of days you’ll be staying and plan ahead. Checking the weather forecast is important when planning for heat and if hot weather is forecasted, appropriate clothing and sunscreen are necessities for you to be both comfortable and safe. Of course, you’ll want your favorite band wear when you see their show, but also packing sweaters for the cooler evening, raingear for potential showers and a hat or other head-wear are also very important. Part of your regular clothing arsenal for the event should also be a fanny pack to help carry any items you’ll need on the festival grounds.

Hygiene

 

For your hygiene and other safety type supplies, it will be important for you to pack a number of hygiene items. Toilet paper, hand sanitizer and your other toiletries will help you stay clean and fresh for days among thousands of strangers. Dry shampoo and cleansing wipes can also be essential in the hot summer heat to stay clean and refreshed for the next day’s shows. A first-aid kit that includes pain medication like ibuprofen, heartburn, stomach and allergy relief is important. The kit should also include Band-Aids for any potential cuts or abrasions that may happen on-site. A quality battery pack for charging your phone is also essential for the festival.

Food 

 

One of the last items you’ll need to plan ahead for on your music festival trip is food and beverages. Planning for this can be a difficult balance as food and drink are available in plenty on the grounds themselves from a wide variety of vendors, but these can often be very expensive options. On the flip side of that, bringing food with for every meal can take many coolers and will entail traveling back to the campsite each time when hungry. Most experienced festival goers will recommend having a plan for food and eating both a good mix of food that you brought along with vendor food for the experience. A very important item to remember is a quality water bottle that can be filled up while on the music grounds as staying hydrated while at the performances is key.

Never lose a friend with meet up spots

 

For overall convenience while at the performances, remember to have a plan with your friend that includes a meeting spot should you lose each other. Thousands of people will be gathered and it is easy to lose people during the performance. A tip for getting up close to the stage is to approach the front from the side rather than barging straight down the middle from the rear.

 

Your festival experience can be assured to be a great one with a little planning ahead. Remember to give your festival camping checklist serious thought prior to embarking on your trip so you can kick back and enjoy your favorite bands instead of worrying!

Want to share your tips? Please do! Just leave a comment bellow so we can add it to our list!

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