A couple days ago there was a huge fiery ball in the sky; I had no idea what it was. Upon questioning and some basic google-ing I found out that it is what our ancestors called; the Sun. I have heard of this mythical mood enhancer before but it seems to not like the UK anymore. We here at Unfold have decided to not let the bad weather get us down and to in fact embrace the British weather as we give you the top ten festival tips. It is festival season all summer and with these handy tips you will be sure to have the best festival possible.
I, myself am a bit of a festival lover and ventured annually to Leeds festival in the years ’07,’08 and ’09 and have future plans to visit Glastonbury. Upon reflection, top tips such as the ones I am giving you.
1. Get a good tent Whether you plan to use your tent to nurse your uncompromising hangover throughout the day or as a place to catch a few hours sleep before you get back to partying; get a good tent. Trust me from personal experience that a tent is not the area you want to try save costing on. You can have all the vodka in the world but if your tent collapses in this typical British weather and you have to use your tent as a really elaborate uncomfortable duvet/blanket/wrap you will regret not investing. Tents themselves are not very expensive and places such as Tesco and Asda always lower their prices of their tents to boost sales around festival times. Plus, a festival is no different to real life, the bigger tent you have the more chance you have of pulling. So as well as it being practical in that this weather is unlikely to inhibit your good time by leaving a pool of dirty water where your tent used to be, who knows, you could find your soul mate. Not likely, but there’s a chance.
2. BABY WIPES You will notice that I put baby wipes in capitals; this is to perpetuate the utter importance of baby wipes. You may be one of those people who get showers at festivals; I call them ‘posh’. There is nothing more refreshing than a bit of dry shampoo in the hair, an all over-body baby wipe wash in a festival. Showers are in short demand, usually very far away and extremely busy so baby wipes are the perfect substitute.
3. Avoid this at all costs http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2621557/Meet-girl-who-got-stuck-in-toilet-at-the-Leeds-Festival.html
4. It’s a marathon, not a sprint Festivals can be very demanding on the body. They usually consist of 3 to 4 days of short sleeps, excessive drinking, copious amounts of breakfast bars and the occasional hot meal. Know your limits; you don’t want to end up in the Welfare tent asleep in your own sick next to a small radiator in a room full of equally dishevelled human beings (trust me). If you are a good actor however and don’t mind being in a room full of other people at their lowest throwing up into anything with a hole then it can be a nice little change from a tent.
5. Energy The hardest battle of festivals is maintaining energy levels. This is usually the hardest thing to do as only expect a couple hours of sleep a night. Cooking food isn’t really a reasonable option and you might not have the money to spend at the hot food stands as it can be quite pricey. Things such as breakfast bars or chocolate bars with lots of sugar in such as ‘Boost bar’ can be vital. Not only does the sugar reimburse any lost energy spent dancing the night previous to your favourite band but they can be quite filling. We all know what happens when you drink on an empty stomach…
6. Make sure you embrace the weird and wonderful Festivals are full of the weird and wonderful people of society. You only have a few days to embrace this part of society; I often did it by investing in a wonderfully tacky hat or pair of sunglasses. Not only will it make anyone you grace have a good laugh at you, it also gets you into the spirit of the festival. Be careful though; with such modern aspects of society such as Facebook and Twitter, you could be living down your decision of fancy dress for years to come. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
I decided to go for the USA bandana… 7. Be careful with your phone Most festival tips will tell you to not take a phone but that in itself is just as dangerous as not taking one. I and my friends had a pact where we all had our phones turned off to conserve battery and if we lost one of our friends due to the scale of the festival, we would all turn our phone back on. Be careful with battery however, it may seem a good idea with 15 Carlsberg’s in you to film the stage where your favourite band are performing your favourite song but in reality it’s raining, you are at least a mile away from the stage and your phone can’t zoom that far and YouTube does not need another one of these videos. I will find it and I will dislike it!
8. Have a meeting point Festivals can have hundreds of thousands people at them and let’s be honest, do you trust drunk you? There was a time where you probably did but now you don’t. My friends and I had a meeting point where if we ever lost someone in the group we would automatically walk to there to meet up with the lost friend in the pact. Some festivals already have these set up but if not, make sure you do this. Although I’m sure in such a mammoth festival and with all the cider in you that you could make new best mates, it’s probably wise that you meet up with the ones you have known for years rather than the ones you plan on spending a few hours with before you come down off the alcohol and realise you didn’t even have that much in common. You just liked his hat. (For other advantages of weird hats see tip 6 )
9. The Golden Rule The golden rule of course is; treat others how you would treat yourselves. With a lot of tents to try manoeuvre through with more pegs and strings and obstacles that will inevitably defeat you to contend with, do your best to not break or take down anyone’s tent. I have done this in the past and after the initial getting up and letting my friends laugh at me for 10 minutes, you start to feel pretty guilty. This is likely to happen to you once or eight times, don’t hold the general festival-goer accountable, he/she is unaware of how to control their feet for a few days and has an almighty reduced sense of balance. Take some gaffer tape or durable tape with you as pegs do get broken and it’s not worth having to venture out on a new tent for something so simple. I got my Wellington Boots robbed in the last festival I went too, I disregarded the golden rule out of anger and robbed a pair back. Only when I got back to my tent did I realise they were size 4, girls and covered in flowers. My feet looked like Frodo’s at the end of that festival.
10. BRING A CHAIR I literally cannot express how important this is. I’m pretty sure the sleep as much as you can, eat well and often and don’t over exhaust yourself is all pretty generic advice that most of you know about. You have no idea the difference in festival of having a chair and not having one. It can get very muddy, dirty and wet in festivals and having a chair to sit in around a campfire with all of your mates at a festival is pretty special. You don’t want to be the person inside sitting on a rare dry sheet inside your tent away from the conversation and warmth, do you? No, I thought not. As well as bringing a chair make sure you bring Wellington boots. Not only are they durable in sometimes severe weather conditions but they keep you dry and are quite comfortable for the surrounding landscape.
Make sure you use our festival tips to ensure you have the best time. We have many more tips coming soon so we will keep you updated!
Written by David Williams (For and on behalf of UNFOLD Student Life)
