Many multi-day music festivals offer overnight camping or other accommodations for the fans that attend. For a lot of us, camping out overnight is half of the fun of attending a festival. Hearing music long into the night, then crashing in your tent, only to wake up and do it all over again the next day is an awesome festival experience.
To get the most out of this, you need to keep a few things in mind, though. Here are a few helpful tips to get you started.
The first thing that you need to do is to be aware of what the rules are for whatever festival you’re at might be. For example, some festivals allow camping while others do not. If it is a multi-day festival and there’s no camping allowed, you will need to make sure that you have made overnight arrangements well ahead of time so that you don’t have to worry about finding a place to stay at the last minute. There’s not much that is worse than trying to find a place to stay after you’ve been out listening to music all day long. The sooner you find out your festival of choice’s policies regarding camping overnight, the sooner you can make other arrangements if you need to. It will be one less thing to stress out about once you’re actually at the show.
If your festival does allow camping, be sure to check out what the other rules are surrounding this. Some festivals will allow you to bring and cook your own food, while others have rules that are much stricter. You might be able to bring snack food in, but not cook it. Or, you might not be allowed to bring food in at all. If this is the case, be sure that you know this ahead of time so you’re not caught off guard. If food is not allowed, food trucks or other vendors will usually be at the show. Having cash on hand to make sure you don’t go hungry is a good way to avoid getting hangry during the show. It will also ensure that you’re taking care of yourself so you can keep enjoying the music.
Don’t forget about liquids. Having a beer or two during a festival can make it enjoyable, but if you’re not taking care of your hydration needs, the festival can easily end in a miserable manner for you. There have been a lot of stories about people passing out from dehydration during music festivals and needing to be hospitalized. Be smart and make sure you have more than enough water, Gatorade, or another hydrating liquid on hand. Alcohol will only make you more dehydrated. If you are going to drink, do it responsibly.
And that brings up an important point: not all festivals have the same rules when it comes to how alcohol is handled. Some allow it while others strictly forbid it. A few beers can make a festival feel more fun, but you don’t need to have booze with you to enjoy the music. Just be aware of the rules so you can avoid any problems. As a side note, almost no festivals will allow you to bring your own beer into the festival grounds.
Finally, don’t forget that festivals are about having fun with other people. Whether you’re staying overnight or not, part of having fun is enjoying the company of the people that you’re with. Not everyone goes out to a festival with the intentions of being kind to others, though. Do what you need to do to keep yourself safe and always be aware of the people around you. Everyone’s there to have fun and removing yourself from a potentially unsafe situation before it begins is far better than doing something when it’s too late.