My own story, mistakes and tips on surviving a British music festival.
The idealized festival experience
Anyone in the UK, or around the world knows what British weather is like…rubbish! The UK weather is known to always be sunny and dry but that doesn’t stop people from enjoying themselves and as the festival season has come around fast this year, the weather will most definitely not stop festivalgoers! Boardmasters festival, which was set in Newquay, Cornwall, has just been and to say the weather was bad would be an understatement. Us Brits have had a decent summer so far, sunny, warm and dry weather but day I arrived at the festival the weather changed from being nice to horrible. After we set up our tents the rain started and I mean torrential rain and wind. I still had a great time at the festival but the weather was not on our side and by the last night I decided to sleep in my car.
Sweet dreams
A festival is always great fun for everyone but there are essentials to surviving a British festival (as I’ve learnt from my own experience). Here are some tips that I’ve learned over the years. After recently coming back from a music festival and attending many others like Reading and Leeds festival, this article will talk about the mistakes I’ve done and some tips on how to survive a British music festival.
This is just day 1
1: Always, and I mean ALWAYS pack wellies.
I made the mistake of forgetting to pack my wellies and only wearing my nice vans…silly mistake but on day two they got soaked and drenched in mud, which was not fun as they were my only pair of shoes all weekend!
2: Read the description or label of your tent…
…before buying to make sure it’s waterproof and not water resistant. I’ve learnt this the hard way. Day one at Boardmasters was nice and dry but the rest of the festival was torrential rain…long story short our tent was soaked and by the last night I slept in my car.
3: Download the app for the festival before you go!
My phone signal was rubbish all weekend so trying to find out when the music started was difficult.
4: This tip is for 18+ only and campers!
Many festivals allow people to take alcohol on the campsites. The mistake I made was trying to sneak in spirits, as some festival doesn’t allow spirits. Like Boardmasters did not allow any spirits on site and so I thought sneaking in some would be a great idea (save money as food and drink is very expensive!) My idea was to hid my pink gin in a shampoo bottle, I thought it was a great idea and was vey proud of my self but soon realised my mistake…I didn’t clean the bottle enough (I did clean it a few times) but after trying a very small amount of the gin I knew it wasn’t safe. My brilliant idea soon fell flat so my advice is to not do that! You don’t need to drink at festival’s to have fun and I found my self having a great time regardless of that, the music was great and I was surrounded by my friends, what more could you want!
You might not be in Scouts anymore, but you should still Be Prepared
5: Camp near a landmark or take a flag with you to pin up next to your tent!
I can’t tell you how many times I got lost and couldn’t find my tent. I bought a bright pink tent thinking I could easily find it but I was wrong as everyone else had the same idea! The first festival I went too was Reading back in 2014 and after setting everything up we walked to the shop and it took us an HOUR to find our tent! No joke. If you don’t have a flag or something obvious to place next to your tent, find something in the arena! Or camp next to someone else who has a flag if you can.
6: This is very important…
You will thank me later and it may be a very obvious tip if you’ve been to a festival before but I can not stress this enough…take as many tissues and wipes as you can! Those toilets (if you can even call them that) are disgusting. Imagine the amount of people that will be using those toilets over the weekend…trust me take as many wipes as you can and never look down!
Beer me bro? Nah water me fam.
7: Many festivals have water stations so taking your own water bottle is very important!
If you wear a bum bag, getting a water bottle with a hook on is a good idea so you don’t have to hold it all the time when you can be dancing to your favourite acts. Amazon and the big supermarkets might stock them.
8: From my own personal experience taking a pair of fluffy socks to wear in the night was great.
A little bit of comfort after being on your feet all day goes a long way- and my feet always get cold at night. I also took my sliders with me and wore my fluffy socks with them when I was sitting around the campsite as its annoying taking your wellies off and then back on again to walk around. Call me lazy but trust me, any comfort whilst camping is a must!
Vegetables? What are thoooose?
9: Snack bars are good!
I took a lot when I went to Boardmasters and they were great as they fitted in my rucksack easy and also fitted in my bum bag so I took a few into the arena with me.
10: This one might be hard…but on the last day leave as early as you can!
At Boardmasters I left at 6:30 in the morning to avoid traffic and delays because we had to drive 4 hours to get home and being stuck in traffic hungover is not fun. (Obvs be careful what you drink before hand, stop drinking early so then you can leave earlier the next morning if you’re driving!)
11: A shewee.
Wait, what?
I know the name sounds funny but girls trust me, it’s a lifesaver! If you don’t know what it is then it’s a tool for women to pee standing up…it sounds weird but at a festival, it’s a necessity. The toilets will always have massive queues and they smell really bad so investing in a shewee is a good idea! You boys have it very easy compared to us girls, most festival will have an area for women using a shewee as they also know our pain ladies!
