Festival camping essentials

What You Need To Take

Tent
Pretty obvious this, but choosing the right sort of tent for a festival is important. If you’re on your own a simple pop-up will probably meet your needs but if you’re taking the family obviously you’ll need something more substantial – but still easy to pitch.

A regular tunnel tent will be fine, especially if you glam it up with bunting or fairy lights, but you could try something a bit different like Soul Pad’s canvas tents or a tipi from Easy Camp. A top tip is to get a tent with darkened bedrooms so you don't get wakened up as soon as the sun rises at 5am - unless you want to go outside for a spiritual experience. Coleman family tents now come with a special black-out material that keeps your bedroom completely dark, while the Black Out three-berth pop-up tent from Mountain Warehouse is made out of silver reflective material to keep the inside cool - particularly useful if you're recovering from a heavy night!

Waterproof jackets/wellies
Believe it or not, sometimes it rains during the Great British Summertime, so it’s best to be prepared.

Sunscreen/after-sun/sun hats
An essential. Even on hazy days you’ll burn and kids especially need to be protected from harmful rays.

Kids’ ear protectors
Another essential if you’ve got youngsters with you.

What To Leave At Home

Chocolate
Sooner or later it’ll succumb to the heat. There’s probably a First Law of Chocolate out there that says, when it melts, it will be at the time designed to cause most inconvenience.

Anything that runs off mains electricity
TV, iron, computer, curling tongs – all best left at home. What are you doing, contemplating taking a TV camping, anyway?

Your best clothes
Dress for the occasion. It's either going to be dry, hot and dusty or cold, wet and muddy. Either way you don't want to ruin your designer togs.

Glass
Most organisers attempt to ban glass bottles etc, for sensible reasons – the breakages just cause too much trouble.

TOP TIPS

• Don’t camp too near the toilets. Fairly obvious why
• Get your bearings. Look out for landmarks to help you find your tent
• Bring a cart or trolley for your gear. Chances are, you’ll have to park elsewhere and carry all your kit into the camping area. Ideal for ferrying youngsters around in
• Don’t leave valuables, keys or cash in your tent. Another case of stating the obvious, but it’s worth remembering there are some unscrupulous types out there.
• Bring big bottles of water. You can normally top these up from taps but it’s handy to have a ready supply
• Take at least one extra set of clothes. There’s nothing worse (or, in fact, more impossible) than trying to dry sodden jeans overnight in a tent