[southeastgigs] Festival Survival Guide

General Festival Tips

It is a well known fact that things go missing at festivals, whether through your own fault (loss) or through the fault of someone else (theft). However the easiest way to prevent this happening is to leave anything valuable at home, Simple as.

Respect is something that should not be forgotten at a festival. Treat your tent and surrounding area as you would your home, Share what you have with you and others will return the favour, such as cigarettes, food or any toilet amenities. Try to remember that people do need to sleep even if you feel like staying up the whole night, If you see someone distressed or upset try and help them or find someone that can. As long as you respect the surrounding area

A festival no-no for me has to be crowd surfing; all it does is cause trouble and puts people in awkward positions.  You are more often than not going to end up with lost possessions and you will inevitably get hurt and removed from the crowd, sending you to the back of the crowd. It also has a knock on effect to the organisers, if there are lots of people crowd surfing it means the price of security goes up and that will end up on the price of your ticket, think about it.

Food & Drink

A lot of people prefer not to take any food to festivals as it can be heavy and take up space in your bag or case for beer or extra clothes. However some of the stall food prices can be extortionate and to buy from them for the whole festival would leave no money for beer or your favourite bands merchandise. However in my opinion the best thing to do is take the basic food that you need to survive as going back to the respect paragraph above you will find people offering you food which I am sure you will be more than willing to reciprocate.

The first I would take would most definitely be water; I would suggest taking at least one bottle of water as most festivals will have water pumps where you can fill up your water for free whenever necessary. Fill this up at off-peak times when the queues are shorter to save time with queuing when you could be out watching music. If you have been drinking throughout the day try to drink water before bed as tents are hot at night and dehydrate you as you sleep.

I know most of you won’t be fans of fruit and nuts but they are full of energy, proteins, minerals and vitamins and usually some fibre. Also take stodgy foods such as bread, sponge cakes and similar things. These are stodgy and will give you the energy you need to continue on your day’s festival going.

Also try and take crisps, ones that are easy to store and seal such as Pringles are great as they can be re-sealed however according to the advert ‘once you pop you just can’t stop’. As most festivals allow drink to be taken onto the camping area but not into the arenas this means a lot of the time your alcohol is going to be left in a warm tent. For this reason i would suggest only taking spirits as a crate of beer left in a tent for the day is not going to be a happy nights drinking, Spirits are better at keeping a lower temperature and take up less space in your bag…and don’t forget your plastic cups!

Clothes

Everyone likes to look good but the fact is, in a field full of 20,000 people covered in mud you really don’t need to. The important thing at festivals is to protect yourself from the four elements: sun,rain,wind and cold. As long as you have something to protect you from all of that the odd inflatable hat or fancy dress pirate outfit will go down a treat.

Useful Items

When camping make sure you have all the little items that will save your life if a problem occurs, so the following may be useful:

Tape & String: I would suggest gaffer tape; this is useful for holding things down, tying things up and making sure nothing blows away, can also be used for fixing holes in tents temporarily. String is also useful for if your shoelaces, broken guide ropes and to generally hold things in place.

BIN BAGS! :  Don’t forget this vital festival tool; You must clean up all your rubbish even if the people around you are not. Treat the tent and camping area as your little home for the weekend, don’t spoil it. You can also store dirty, wet and used clothing items in them to take home. Also if it is raining a simple hole in the top of a black back makes a perfect poncho.

Toiletries : Remember to take enough toilet rolls and wet wipes to last the weekend, after about 2 hours at most festivals the loo roll has been stolen, and if there is any there it is usually made of sand paper. Wet wipes will come in useful for washing if there are no showers available, sounds dirty but it will do for a weekend! Women should also take Tampons and liners even if its outside your normal week as you never know. Take a toothbrush even if you think you won’t use it, it could come in handy elsewhere.

Always take plenty of lighters, even if you don’t smoke someone your with or near will be and you will get asked about 200 times a day. I would also suggest taking a small torch for navigating to your tent after a hard evenings partying, guide ropes are lethal.

Drugs

We at southeastgigs are in no way conding the taking of drugs however we are aware that at most festivals it does take place so…Be careful, don’t ever take anymore than you know you can handle. Never give into peer pressure. f you buy pills, be prepared for: headache pills, worming tablets, horse tranquillisers, stomach aches, bad trips, strange aches and twinges, losing £5 - £30 on chalk. Hash cakes are generally genuine, and of varying strengths. Don’t do acid (LSD) in a crowd, and remember it lasts about 12 hours and is very unpredictable – orange juice / vitamin C helps you come down.